It All Started with Joe
Joseph Walter Jackson, aka Joe Jackson, was the family patriarch. As a young man, he wanted to be a professional boxer. He joined the Golden Gloves boxing club in Chicago and even did pretty well for himself, that is until he met a young woman named Katherine Scruse. After Katherine came into his life, his priorities changed.
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The thing is, Joe was already married by the time he met Katherine. So, he quickly annulled his first marriage to be with his then-17-year-old new girlfriend. By 1949, they were married and moved to Gary, Indiana. Their first child, Rebbie, came six months later. In the end, Joe gave up his dream of boxing in order to support his family. To make a living, he worked as a full-time crane operator for US Steel.