Joe Jackson, Musical Patriarch and Father of Michael Jackson, Dies at 89
Joe Jackson, the father of Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 who raised his kids to international stardom, died on Wednesday morning, June 27, after losing a battle with terminal cancer. He was 89 years old.
Jackson has earlier been hospitalized last week in Los Angeles, where he was bedridden in the final stages of terminal pancreatic cancer. The man who brought the Jackson 5 into superstardom was gravely ill in the end, having already suffered from dementia, strokes, at least one heart attack, and even an injury from a car accident last year, according to Variety.
The overbearing father figure was not one known to be gentle to his kids and soon-to-be stars — he was known to get the family to work hard, and he pushed them to their limits, physically and mentally. He had contentious relations with many of his family members, including the late Michael Jackson.
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Nonetheless, both critics and fans recognized the incredible hard work he did raising the Jackson family from a hard life in the ghettos of Gary, Indiana to international pop superstardom.
"We are deeply saddened by Mr. Jackson's passing and extend our heartfelt condolences to Mrs. Katherine Jackson and the family," John Branca and John McClain, co-executors of the Estate of Michael Jackson, said in a statement, as quoted by Rolling Stone.
"Joe was a strong man who acknowledged his own imperfections and heroically delivered his sons and daughters from the steel mills of Gary, Indiana to worldwide pop superstardom," their statement continued, adding that his contributions to the history of music cannot be overestimated.
Michael Jackson, however, wrote in his biography, "Moonwalk," an unfulfilled wish. "To this day I'm so thankful he didn't try to take all our money for himself the way so many parents of child stars have... But I still don't know him, and that's sad for a son who hungers to understand his own father," the pop icon revealed.
