Katherine Jackson
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Katherine Jackson (born Katherine Esther Scruse on May 4, 1930 in Barbour County, Alabama) is the matriarch of the Jacksons musical dynasty and the mother of music superstars Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson. Katherine was the daughter of one Prince Albert Screws. She later changed the spelling to Scruse.
Raised in Chicago, Illinois from the time she was four, she contracted polio. She eventually broke out of the disease and walks with a limp. Katherine was an aspiring nurse when she first met Joseph Jackson in 1947. The two became a couple the next year and married in November of 1949 in Crown Point, Indiana. The couple settled at a two-bedroom house at Gary, Indiana and several months later, Katherine gave birth to the couple's first child together, Rebbie, in May of 1950.
Katherine began working as a store clerk for Sears during this period in which she gave birth to nine more children, including two twins (one died a stillborn). In 1966, shortly after the birth of her youngest child, Janet, Katherine became a devout Jehovah's Witness. Around this time, Katherine's five eldest sons Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael had began performing together as The Jackson 5.
During the group's rise to fame under Motown, Katherine and Joseph eventually moved to California settling in a gated mansion in Encino they nicknamed "Hayvenhurst". Katherine and Joseph suffered a few setbacks in their marriage, with Joseph's infidelity the main factor. Katherine filed for divorce twice, in 1973 (when one of the Jackson 5 groupies claimed Joseph as the father of her daughter), and in 1979 (after rumors speculated of a relationship between Joseph and a Motown executive ran rampant) but recanted her decisions after Joseph refused to leave the house.
In 1981, Katherine and two of her children got involved in a spat with Sprague causing the woman to file a lawsuit against the family for abuse. The parties settled out of court. Katherine began to take business reins alongside her husband during The Jacksons' 1984 Victory World Tour and in 1990, she wrote her own memoirs, "My Family".
Today, Katherine lives in Hayvenhurst with several of her children and also has a home in Las Vegas. She was the only member of the family to show up every day for her son, Michael's trial on child molestation, conspiracy and alcohol charges. Michael was eventually acquitted of the charges.
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