When Klaas Luitje Bakema was born on 20 November 1912, in Nieuw-Weerdinge, Drenthe, Netherlands, his father, Guitje Bakema, was 25 and his mother, Wimke Elizabeth Pilon, was 29. He married Zwaantje Gezina Huizing on 1 February 1939. He died on 23 May 1994, at the age of 81, and was buried in Oosterhesselen, Drenthe, Netherlands.