On This Day in 2018: Joseph Jackson, patriarch of the Jackson family, dies at 89 | SoulTracks [Video]

June 27, 2018 – Joseph Jackson, patriarch of the world-changing Jackson family, dies at age 89

On this day in 2018, Joseph Jackson, the patriarch of the first family of popular music, the Jacksons, died in a Las Vegas hospital after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 89.

Jackson launched the careers of five of his sons as The Jackson Five in the late 1960s, and later the careers of his three daughters. His son, Michael Jackson, who died almost exactly nine years earlier, became one of the most important and acclaimed artists of his generation, and daughter Janet had her own time as perhaps the most popular singer in the world.

He and his wife, Katherine, married in 1949, in Gary, Indiana, and bore nine children, Rebbie, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, La Toya, Marlon, Michael, Randy and Janet, between the years 1950 and 1966. All nine would ultimately have international musical careers. While Jackson worked …