Exit Joe : Michael Jackson's father dies

The passing of Joe Jackson, the patriarch of the Jackson family, again confirms that mortality is a debt owed by all humans

The end finally came to 89-year-old Joe Jackson in Las Vegas. He had been in hospital with terminal pancreatic cancer. He will be remembered as the the former blues guitarist who trained his children into a pop outfit that lifted the family to attain global superstardom.



Joe was born in Fountain Hill, Arkansas, in 1929. He was the son of a teacher and a housewife. He had wanted to be a professional boxer or musician, but after marrying Katherine and starting a family he instead became a crane operator at a steel plant and ploughed his considerable energy and ambition into his children.

Jackson 5, made up of Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael — would practise in their front room, with children from the neighbourhood pressing their noses up to the window and dancing outside.