Joe Jackson (manager)
Born Joseph Walter Jackson
July 26, 1928
Fountain Hill, Arkansas, U.S.
Died June 27, 2018 (aged 89)
Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
Nationality American
Occupation Talent manager
Joseph Walter Jackson (July 26, 1928 – June 27, 2018) was an American talent manager and patriarch of the Jackson family of entertainers which included the pop stars Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson. He was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame as a member of the class of 2014.
Jackson was an African-American, born to Samuel Jackson (1893–1992), a university professor, and Crystal Lee King (1907–1997), in Fountain Hill, Arkansas, on July 26, 1928 (although, according to the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame and Katherine Jackson’s book, My Family, The Jacksons, the year was 1929). Jackson was the eldest of five children. He was of African and Native American Ancestry.
Joseph Jackson recalled from early childhood that his father was domineering and strict, and he described himself as a “lonely child that had only few friends” in his memoirs, The Jacksons. After his parents separated when he was twelve, his mother, two brothers, and sister moved to East Chicago, Indiana, a suburb outside Chicago in Northwest Indiana, and he moved with his father to Oakland, California. When he was 18, after his father remarried, he moved to East Chicago to live with his mother, two brothers, and sister. He soon got a job in East Chicago at Inland Steel Company, but did not finish high school. While in East Chicago, he began to pursue his dreams of becoming a boxer and found success with the Golden Gloves program. While he was preparing for a professional boxing career, he met 17-year-old Katherine Scruse, who also lived in East Chicago and attended Washington High School; Joe married another woman and in less than a year he was divorced before he started dating Katherine.
Joseph and Katherine were married on November 5, 1949. In January 1950, they purchased 2300 Jackson Street, a small two-bedroom home near East Chicago in Gary, Indiana. The Jacksons’ first child, Maureen Reillette “Rebbie” Jackson, was born four months later on May 29, 1950, in the Jackson house. Still employed at Inland Steel, Jackson left his hopes of becoming a professional boxer in order to support his family, and began working there as a full-time crane operator; he later took a second part-time job at American Foundries in East Chicago. In the meantime, his wife Katherine tended to their growing family; she started working part-time at Sears in Gary in the late 1950s. The Jacksons would go on to have ten children (their son Brandon Jackson died just after he was born). During the early 1950s, Jackson briefly performed with his own blues band The Falcons, playing guitar. Despite their efforts, The Falcons did not get a recording deal and subsequently broke up after one of their members, Thornton “Pookie” Hudson, founded his own band in 1952. That band would go on to become a successful doo-wop group named The Spaniels.
Jackson began working with his sons’ musical group in the early 1960s, first working with his three eldest sons, Jackie, Tito and Jermaine. Younger sons Marlon and Michael eventually joined the backing band. Joseph began enforcing long and intense rehearsals for his sons. At first, the group went under The Jackson Brothers. Following the inclusions of Marlon and Michael in the group and Michael’s increased vocal presence within the group, their name was changed to The Jackson 5.
After a couple years performing in talent contests and high school functions, Joseph booked them in more and more respectable venues until they landed a spot at the renowned Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. On November 21, 1967, The Jackson 5 were signed by Jackson to their first professional contract with Gordon Keith, an owner and the first president of Steeltown Records in Gary, Indiana. The group’s first single “Big Boy,” with Michael as the lead singer, was released by Keith on January 31, 1968 on the Steeltown label. “Big Boy” became a local hit and Michael and his brothers became local celebrities when and after it was played on radio stations in the Chicago-Gary area. Within the year, Jackson helped to land his sons an audition for Motown Records in Detroit. The Jackson 5 were signed with Motown in March 1969.
Jackson later relocated his family to California and supervised every recording session the group made for Motown. The group began to receive nationwide fame after their first single for Motown, “I Want You Back”, hit #1, was released on October 7, 1969, followed by their first album, Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5 in December 1969. After the Jackson 5’s first four singles, “I Want You Back” (The Jackson 5, 1969), “ABC” (The Jackson 5, 1970), “The Love You Save” (The Jackson 5, 1970), and “I’ll Be There” (The Jackson 5, 1970) sold 10 million copies in 10 months, setting a world record for sales, it became clear to Jackson that his dream to make his sons the first African-American teenagers to become internationally known recording stars had come true.
Joseph Jackson was portrayed by Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs in the mini-series The Jacksons: An American Dream, and by Frederic Tucker in the 2004 VH1 biopic Man in the Mirror: The Michael Jackson Story.
On June 22, 2018, TMZ reported that Jackson was hospitalized in Las Vegas in the final stages of terminal pancreatic cancer.[50] He died at a local hospice five days later.
Children
Jackson had eleven children, ten with his wife Katherine Jackson (née Scruse):
Maureen Reillette “Rebbie” Jackson (born May 29, 1950)
Sigmund Esco “Jackie” Jackson (born May 4, 1951)
Toriano Adaryll “Tito” Jackson (born October 15, 1953)
Jermaine La Jaune Jackson (born December 11, 1954)
La Toya Yvonne Jackson (born May 29, 1956)
Marlon David Jackson (born March 12, 1957)
Brandon Jackson (March 12, 1957 – March 13, 1957)
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009)
Steven Randall “Randy” Jackson (born October 29, 1961)
Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966)
Jackson also had a daughter, Joh’Vonnie Jackson, who was born on August 30, 1974, during Jackson’s 25-year-long affair with Cheryl Terrell.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia