According to Biography, Katherine Scruse was just 17 when she met Joseph Jackson, who was two years her senior. In 1949, after a two-year courtship, the couple were married. Joseph and Katherine raised nine children in Gary, Indiana. (A tenth, Brandon Jackson, died shortly after his birth.) Joseph had been a successful Golden Gloves boxer, on his way to the professionals, when he met Katherine. After they married and Katherine gave birth to their first child, Maureen "Rebbie" Jackson, in 1950, he gave up fighting and took a job as a crane operator at U.S. Steel. In the mid-1950s, he and his brother, Luther, would form a band named the Falcons, hoping that music would be his way up the social ladder, but the group split after a few years.
Katherine and Joseph moved into a two-bedroom home after they were married, and his desire for success might have come from the environment of Gary. In an interview with GQ Magazine, Jackie and Marlon Jackson would talk about growing up in Gary. According to Jackie, "Gary wasn't the safest place to live. There were gangs and Dad had six boys. He wanted to make sure we didn't get into drugs, so he kept us busy."
Marlon would add on by saying that their father made sure to keep the boys out of trouble by making them move bricks from one side of the backyard to the other.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunB%2Bkm5scXFfqbWmedOrmKChk2K%2Fpq3LZqOinpViwLW70bJkqJ5dqbWmecmamqSrn6N6p63MoqOyZw%3D%3D