Doig was born in White Sulphur Springs, Montana to Charles "Charlie" Doig, ranch hand and Bernita Ringer Doig, ranch cook. Berneta on tombstone, www.findagrave.com After the death of his mother on his sixth birthday, he was raised by his father and his grandmother Elizabeth "Bessie" Ringer. Doig moved with his father and grandmother on a series of jobs, the ranch equivalent of sharecropping, subsequently moving to Dupuyer, Montana to herd sheep close to the Rocky Mountain Front. As a child, Doig read comics, sports pages and magazines like Life, Colliers and The Saturday Evening Post.