Katherine Jackson

About Katherine Jackson

Katherine Jackson (born May 4, 1930) is the matriarch of the Jacksons musical dynasty and the mother of pop music icons Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson.

Born Katherine B. Screws on May 4, 1930 in Barbour County, Alabama, Jackson was the daughter of Martha ("Mattie") Upshaw and Prince Albert Screws. Katherine's father changed his last name to "Scruse" and upon leaving Alabama, Katherine's name was changed to Katherine Esther Scruse when she was four. Katherine contracted polio as a child though she eventually made a full recovery from the disease. Because of the disease's effects, she walks with a noticeable limp. At four, her family moved her and her younger sister Hattie to East Chicago, Indiana.

In 1947, while in East Chicago, she met a teenage boxer named Joseph Jackson and within two years the couple married and settled in the working-class neighborhood of Gary, Indiana, where Katherine reared ten children. Marlon Jackson was premature; his twin brother, Brandon, died within hours of birth. She eventually became one of Jehovah's Witnesses in 1965 and brought up her nine children in the faith, although most of the children are no longer associated with Jehovah's Witnesses.