JACKSONS VIGIL
Family members visit patriarch hospitalized with terminal cancer
Joe Jackson, the demanding dad behind the star-studded musical family of Michael, Janet and their talented siblings, was hospitalized Friday with terminal cancer, according to a family source.
“It's Stage 4 pancreatic cancer,” the source told the Daily News. “He's OK, but he's kind of weak. They're managing the pain.”
Jackson, 89, was visited at the Las Vegas hospital by some of his kids and grandkids after doctors informed his large family that the disease is untreatable. His wife of 68 years, Katherine Jackson, was also at his bedside recently, the family source said.
Jackson (photo) struggled with health issues in recent years, including a 2012 stroke, a second stroke with accompanying heart arrhythmia in 2015 and a Los Angeles hospitalization in 2016. Jackson, portrayed by his late son Michael as a tyrannical taskmaster, was in the “waiting it out” stage of the illness as his condition weakened, the source indicated.
The contentious family history reared its ugly head when son Jermaine said he was recently blocked from contacting his father.
“It's just so much confusion,” said the source. “Some of the family have been able to communicate with Joe, but others have not. What Jermaine said is accurate. There's still a power struggle to keep Joe away from family members.” The family patriarch was born in Fountain Hill, Ark. His family settled in Gary, Ind., where Jackson fought in the Golden Gloves while pursuing a pro boxing career. Jackson instead met Katherine Scruse and fell in love. They tied the knot on Nov. 5, 1949, and eventually had 10 children, including one who died at birth.
Jackson tried his hand in an unsuccessful ‘50s band called The Falcons. His plans for musical acclaim eventually transferred to his kids. The Jackson 5, with Joe Jackson as their manager, fulfilled his dreams – a band comprised of sons Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael.
But Michael fired his father as manager in 1979, and his brothers followed suit four years later. When Michael Jackson died of a drug overdose in June 2009, Joe Jackson found he was cut out of his son's will — he received nothing.