While in Chicago, Heron met Bobbie Scott, a singer, with whom he had a son in 1949, Gil Scott-Heron, who became a famed poet and musician. They separated when Heron left for Scotland and did not meet again until Scott-Heron was 26. Heron had three more children with his wife Margaret Frize, whom he met whilst in Glasgow, Scotland (deceased): Gayle, Denis and his youngest child Kenneth, who was killed in Detroit. His older brother, Roy Trevor Gilbert Heron, served with the Norwegian Merchant Navy during World War II and then joined the Canadian army, later moving to Canada, where he became active in black Canadian politics.