Donald Edwin Heiden was born August 18, 1927 as the first child of Edwin "Pete" and Lela (Viets) Heiden at their home on North Macomb Street in Monroe, Michigan. Don went on to graduate from Dundee High School in 1954. He worked as a Rural Mail Carrier for the U.S. Postal Service.

He married Doris Elinor Petee on June 30, 1951 at St. Alphonsus Catholic Church in Deerfield, Michigan.. Doris was born July 4, 1929. They had four children. A son, Gregory Donald Heiden, died in 2021.

Don died at the Alice Lorraine Care Center in Monroe, Michigan on February 23, 2021 at the age of 93. Doris passed on October 27, 2017 at the same facility at the age of 88.