Katherine Jackson raised nine children in Gary, Indiana, and in a family that size, birthdays come around fast. There was always somebody’s cake on the way.
Twice, though, the calendar played a little trick on the Jacksons. Two of Michael’s siblings came into the world on a day when somebody else in the family was already celebrating.
Let’s start at the top of the family tree.
Katherine was born on May 4, 1930. Long before the world knew her sons’ names, she was a young mother in Gary with a house that kept getting fuller.
Her first child was a daughter, Rebbie. She was born Maureen Reillette Jackson on May 29, 1950, and as the oldest, she grew up helping with everyone who came after her. In a 1980s magazine interview, she described herself as a second mother to her younger brothers and sisters, and she often babysat them.
The next baby was a boy named Sigmund Esco Jackson. You know him as Jackie, the oldest of the brothers in the Jackson 5. He was born at St. Mary’s Mercy Hospital in Gary in 1951.
And here’s the first surprise. Jackie arrived on May 4. That was Katherine’s 21st birthday.
So mother and son share a birthday. Katherine got the best present a new mom could ask for, and Jackie would never have any trouble remembering his mother’s big day.
The second surprise came five years later.
By 1956, the family was growing fast. Rebbie was about to turn 6, and on her birthday, May 29, 1956, a baby girl was born at St. Mary’s Mercy Hospital in Gary. It was the same hospital where Jackie had been born.
That baby was La Toya.
So the oldest Jackson sister got a little sister for her 6th birthday, and from then on, Rebbie and La Toya shared their day. For a girl who’d go on to call herself a second mother to the younger kids, it was a fitting way to start.
Michael came along two years after that, on Aug 29, 1958, in Gary. He didn’t land on anybody else’s birthday, but he came close in his own way. He was born on the 29th, the same number as his two big sisters, just three months later in the year.
The boys in that house grew up to sing together as a group, and their big brother Jackie was part of it from the start. To see the brothers’ group years later, here’s its official video for a song with the family name right in its title.
The Jacksons’ official video for “2300 Jackson Street”
May must have been a busy month at the Jackson house. Katherine’s birthday and Jackie’s fell on the 4th. Then came Rebbie’s and La Toya’s on the 29th. That’s four members of one family celebrating in a single month, with two cakes doing the work of four.
Big families often end up with a couple of birthdays close together. Landing on the exact same day twice is a lot rarer, and the Jacksons managed it with two different pairs.
Next May 4, you’ll know Katherine and her oldest son have the same day circled. And on May 29, two Jackson sisters do too.