When Robert Eugene Willard was born on 28 February 1922, in Los Angeles, California, United States, his father, Orville Leonard Willard, was 29 and his mother, Vera Marie Whitman, was 29. He married Norma Lee Mann on 12 December 1964. He lived in Burbank, Los Angeles, California, United States in 1935 and Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States in 1940. He died in July 1981, in Visalia, Tulare, California, United States, at the age of 59, and was buried in Exeter, Tulare, California, United States.