Joe Jackson, the patriarch of the Jackson family, died today at the age of 89.
Jackson died at a hospice in Las Vegas, according to TMZ.com, which was first to report the news.
Family sources told the celebrity news website last week that Jackson
had been battling cancer for some time, and that his wife, Katherine, had been
at his bedside, as had some of his children and grandchildren.
Jackson battled a variety of illnesses in recent years, including
suffering a stroke and three heart attacks in 2015, TMZ reported.
Jackson oversaw the rise of The Jackson 5. Formed in 1964, the group
originally consisted of Jackson’s sons Jackie, Tito and Jermaine. Younger
brothers Marlon and Michael joined the group later.
Michael eventually became a superstar as a solo artist, as did his
sister, Janet Jackson.
Joe Jackson was lauded for managing the group’s emergence, but his
reputation suffered in the 1980s as stories emerged about his allegedly
controlling and abusive treatment of his children. Those allegations, some of
which were made by Michael Jackson, were denied by Joe Jackson and the
children’s mother, Katherine.
The most recent tweet on Joe Jackson’s official Twitter page, posted
Sunday, shows a photograph of the patriarch silhouetted against a sunset, with
the words, “I have seen more sunsets than I have left to see. The sun rises
when the time comes and whether you like it or not the sun sets when the time
comes.”
