Michael Jackson

NAME Michael Joseph Jackson. He was globally recognized by his honorific nickname, the "King of Pop." 

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Michael Jackson was an American singer, songwriter, and dancer who became one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. He revolutionized the music industry through his boundary-breaking music videos, pioneered complex dance moves like the "moonwalk," and shattered racial barriers on music television. His 1982 release, Thriller, remains the best-selling record album in history.

BIRTH Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana, USA. (1)

FAMILY BACKGROUND He was the eighth of ten children born to Katherine Esther Jackson (née Scruse) and Joseph Walter "Joe" Jackson. His siblings were Rebbie, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, La Toya, Marlon, Randy, and Janet. 

His father worked as a crane operator at a steel mill in Gary while also playing guitar in a local rhythm and blues band called The Falcons. Katherine was a devout Jehovah's Witness who raised her children in the faith. 

The family lived in a modest two-bedroom house at 2300 Jackson Street, Gary. (2)

CHILDHOOD Jackson grew up in Gary, Indiana, in conditions of relative poverty in a crowded family home. 

His talent for music and performance was apparent from an early age. He has spoken in interviews about a childhood largely consumed by rehearsals and performances, leaving little time for normal play or schooling. He later described his childhood as stolen, expressing sadness that he never experienced a conventional upbringing. 

His father Joe was a strict and at times physically abusive disciplinarian, a fact Michael discussed in interviews throughout his adult life. 

In 1965, at the age of seven, Michael and his brother Marlon joined the Jackson 5 — a band formed by their father that already included brothers Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine — as backup musicians playing congas and tambourine. (2)

The Jackson 5 in 1969 (Michael in the center)

EDUCATION Jackson received little formal education, as his touring and performing commitments took precedence from an early age. He was educated intermittently on the road with tutors. He later said he regretted not receiving a proper education and was a voracious self-taught reader as an adult, amassing a substantial personal library. (2)

CAREER RECORD

1964,The Jackson Brothers were formed by Joe Jackson, a band which included brothers Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine. Michael was initially a backup musician playing congas and tambourine. 

1965 Michael Jackson and his brother Marlon officially joined the group as vocalists and dancers. By age 8, Michael became the co-lead singer alongside Jermaine, prompting the group to change its name to The Jackson 5. 

1968 The Jackson 5 signed with Motown Records, launching them into national stardom with four consecutive number-one singles on the Billboard charts. 

1971 Jackson launched his parallel solo career while remaining a member of The Jackson 5, releasing his debut solo single "Got to Be There." 

1975 The group left Motown Records and signed with Epic Records, rebranding as The Jacksons, where Michael began taking greater creative control over songwriting and production. 

1979 Jackson released his breakthrough adult solo album, Off the Wall, produced by Quincy Jones, establishing him as a massive solo force in pop and R&B. 

1982,Jackson released Thriller, which became an unprecedented global phenomenon, dominating the charts worldwide and permanently reshaping music videos and pop culture. 

1987 He released the multi-platinum album Bad and embarked on his first solo world tour, setting world records for concert attendance. 

1991 Jackson signed a record-breaking $65 million contract with Sony Music and released the album Dangerous, featuring the hit "Black or White." 

1995 He released the double-disc project HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I, which he promoted with an expansive, highly theatrical world tour. 

2001 Jackson released Invincible, his final complete studio album of all-new material, which debuted at number one on charts around the globe. 

2009, Jackson announced a series of 50 comeback concerts titled This Is It, scheduled to take place at London's O2 Arena, but passed away during rehearsals.

APPEARANCE Jackson underwent a dramatic physical transformation over the course of his career. He was born with naturally dark skin, broad features, and a wide nose. By the late 1980s and 1990s, his skin had become markedly lighter and his facial features had changed significantly, including a notably narrowed nose, a more prominent chin, and altered cheekbones. Jackson attributed his lightening skin to vitiligo, a condition that destroys skin pigmentation, and this diagnosis was confirmed by his autopsy. 

He acknowledged multiple rhinoplasties during his lifetime. His autopsy also revealed that his lips were tattooed pink and his eyebrows were tattooed a dark hue. 

In his later years he was slender to the point of frailty, and his height was reported as approximately 5 feet 9 inches (175 cm). 

Jackson at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival by Georges Biard

FASHION Jackson was one of the most influential fashion figures of the twentieth century. His signature look included a single sequined or crystal-covered glove — in fact a modified golf glove — military-style jackets festooned with epaulettes and gold braid, high-waisted black trousers worn short enough to expose white socks, and black loafers. He wore white tape on his fingers so that audience members in large venues could follow the movements of his hands while dancing, and wore white socks so they could similarly follow his feet and footwork. (2)

His red leather jacket from the "Thriller" video became one of the most iconic garments in pop culture history. 

CHARACTER Those who knew Jackson personally frequently described him as shy, soft-spoken, and gentle in private, a marked contrast to his electrifying stage persona. 

He was by many accounts deeply kind, particularly with children and with fans who were ill or disadvantaged. He was also widely described as eccentric, with unusual habits and a childlike quality that endured into adulthood — something he himself connected to his sense that his childhood had been taken from him. 

Jackson's friend and collaborator Quincy Jones praised his musicality and work ethic. Employees and associates described a perfectionist who would work tirelessly in the studio.  (2)

SPEAKING VOICE Jackson's speaking voice was notably soft, high-pitched, and gentle — quite different from his powerful singing voice, and something that surprised many people who met him for the first time. Interviewers frequently noted how quietly he spoke and how he would sometimes cover his mouth with his hand while talking. 

His vocal range as a singer spanned several octaves, and he was famous for his use of percussive vocal sounds — grunts, squeals, and rhythmic exhalations — that became part of his musical signature. 

SENSE OF HUMOUR Jackson had a playful, sometimes mischievous sense of humour that he tended to reserve for close friends and family. His long friendship with comedian and actor Macaulay Culkin was reportedly based in part on a shared silly, boyish humour. 

In interviews, flashes of dry wit occasionally surfaced beneath his characteristically reserved demeanour. 

RELATIONSHIPS Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley, in a private ceremony in the Dominican Republic on May 26, 1994. The marriage lasted approximately two years; they divorced on August 20, 1996, citing irreconcilable differences. Despite the split, they reportedly maintained a cordial relationship in subsequent years.

Jackson married Debbie Rowe, a nurse who had worked for his dermatologist, in November 1996. They had two children together: Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. (known as Prince) and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson. The couple divorced on October 8, 1999.

His third child, Prince Michael Joseph Jackson II — nicknamed "Blanket" and later known as Bigi — was born in 2002 to a surrogate mother whose identity was never publicly disclosed.

Actor and former child star Macaulay Culkin is godfather to Jackson's two eldest children, Paris and Prince. 

MONEY AND FAME Jackson's earning power was extraordinary, and his fame at his peak in the 1980s was without precedent in the entertainment industry. He received $2 in royalties for every copy of Thriller sold, one of the highest royalty rates of its era. His 1985 purchase of the ATV Music Publishing catalog — which included the rights to over 250 Lennon–McCartney songs — for $47.5 million proved to be one of the most lucrative investments in music history, though it permanently damaged his friendship with Paul McCartney, who had advised him to invest in publishing in the first place.

Despite this, Jackson died reportedly $500 million in debt in 2009, the result of extravagant spending on his Neverland estate, legal fees, and a lifestyle of extraordinary excess. However, his estate subsequently became one of the most profitable in the world, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in the years following his death and ranking consistently among the highest-earning estates of deceased celebrities.

In 2000, The Guinness Book of World Records cited Jackson as the most philanthropic pop star in history, crediting him with donating over $300 million to charity during his lifetime. He visited hospitals and orphanages at every stop of his concert tours, distributing gifts and making donations. (3)

FOOD AND DRINK Jackson stated that he aspired to vegetarianism, saying: "What turns me off is that I don't like eating anything that used to be alive, and now it's dead on my plate. I want to be a strict vegetarian." He was reportedly vegetarian — and by some accounts vegan — during his Jackson 5 years and into the early Thriller era. However, from around the mid-1980s onward, his doctors insisted he follow a higher-protein diet including fish and chicken to sustain the physical demands of his concert schedule, and Jackson reluctantly complied. (4)

By his later career he was clearly no longer vegetarian in practice; he had a well-documented fondness for KFC fried chicken, and rapper Run-D.M.C. recalled being invited to share KFC with him during a Bad-era recording session. (5)

His pre-concert ritual included dissolving Ricola candy in hot water, a beverage he believed kept his throat clear and his voice in good condition. 

Jackson reportedly requested that wine be served to him in Diet Coke cans during flights so that his children would not see him drinking alcohol. (6).

CAREER WITH THE JACKSON 5 In 1965, at the age of seven—an age when most children are still negotiating the finer points of shoelaces—Michael Jackson and his brother Marlon Jackson were drafted into the family enterprise, a musical outfit optimistically titled the Jackson Brothers. Their initial duties were of the “stand over there and try not to drop anything” variety, but Michael rather inconveniently turned out to be a phenomenon. By the age of eight, he was not only singing but doing so with a confidence and polish that would make seasoned nightclub performers consider quieter careers. Around 1966–1967, he was promoted to co-lead vocalist alongside Jermaine Jackson, and the group sensibly rebranded itself as the Jackson 5—presumably because by then it was clear which five people you were meant to be paying attention to. 

After honing their craft on the Chitlin’ Circuit—a proving ground where audiences were generous with applause but sparing with mercy—the Jackson 5 landed a contract with Motown Records in 1968. Their debut single, “I Want You Back,” shot to No. 1 in the United States, which had the mildly astonishing effect of making an eleven-year-old Michael one of the youngest lead vocalists ever to top the charts. This was followed by “ABC,” “The Love You Save,” and “I’ll Be There,” all of which also reached No. 1—an achievement so brisk and emphatic it suggested less a promising start than a complete takeover.

Not content with conquering the charts as part of a group, Michael launched a solo career in 1971 with “Got to Be There,” which climbed to No. 4. He spent the early 1970s performing the delicate balancing act of being both a group member and a solo star, which is rather like being both the lead actor and the entire supporting cast at once, and somehow making it look easy.

In 1975, the Jacksons—now without Jermaine, who stayed behind at Motown—made the jump to Epic Records, citing creative restrictions. (This is the music industry’s polite way of saying they would quite like to make their own decisions, thank you very much.) They continued as a group into the late 1970s, though by this point Michael’s solo career had begun to loom so large that it was increasingly difficult to see anything else.

SOLO CAREER If Michael Jackson’s early career suggested promise, his late-1970s and 1980s output with Quincy Jones suggested something closer to world domination—only with better choreography. The three albums they produced together—Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), and Bad (1987)—form a kind of pop music Holy Trinity, though one suspects they required rather more sequins.

Thriller, released on November 30, 1982, did not so much succeed as proceed to abolish the concept of reasonable expectations. It was certified 20-times Platinum within two years and has since become the best-selling album in history, which is the musical equivalent of writing a modest pamphlet and discovering it has outsold the Bible. Its accompanying fourteen-minute short film, directed by John Landis, elevated the music video from a promotional afterthought into something approaching cinema—albeit cinema in which the dead are surprisingly good dancers.

The album also produced “Billie Jean,” whose video achieved heavy rotation on MTV, quietly dismantling one of the network’s more indefensible habits—namely, not playing Black artists nearly enough. Around this same period, at the 1983 Motown 25th Anniversary special, Jackson unveiled the moonwalk, a move he had learned from street dancers and, more specifically, from Jeffrey Daniel. The effect on the viewing public was immediate and profound: millions of people stood up, attempted it, and very quickly sat back down again.

On February 28, 1984, Jackson collected eight Grammy Awards in a single evening, surpassing the previous record of six set by Roger Miller. This is the sort of thing that tends to make other musicians reconsider their life choices.

The successes continued with almost suspicious efficiency. His 1995 double album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I became the best-selling double album in U.S. history, while 1997’s Blood on the Dance Floor achieved the even more niche but no less emphatic distinction of being the best-selling remix album ever—proving that even Jackson’s leftovers could outperform most people’s main course.

In 1993, his Super Bowl XXVII halftime performance accomplished what had previously seemed improbable: it drew more viewers than the game itself, suggesting that, given the choice, a significant portion of the public would rather watch Michael Jackson stand perfectly still in sunglasses than observe professional athletes doing their jobs.

Even after his death, Jackson retained a knack for improbable firsts. In 2014, he became the first artist to score Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 across five consecutive decades, when “Love Never Felt So Good”—a song originally recorded in 1983 and later polished with assistance from Justin Timberlake—reached No. 9. It was, in its way, a final reminder that Michael Jackson’s career did not so much follow the rules of pop stardom as rewrite them, preferably with a dramatic flourish and a well-timed spin.

MUSIC AND ARTS Jackson had a deep engagement with music across genres, drawing on soul, R&B, funk, pop, rock, and dance. He was a highly visual artist with a strong instinct for spectacle, working closely with directors, choreographers, and designers on his videos, stage shows, and public appearances. 

Jacjson co-wrote many of his biggest hits, including "Billie Jean," "Beat It," and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'." He was famously unable to read sheet music and did not play instruments in a conventional sense, but composed by vocalising every element of a track — melody, bass lines, drum patterns, horn parts — with such accuracy that studio musicians could transcribe and perform them. 

The costumes he wore at the end of his concerts had to be made smaller than the outfits he wore at the beginning, since he sweated so much during performances that he physically diminished in size.  (2)

LITERATURE Jackson published an autobiography, Moonwalk, in 1988. It was edited by Jacqueline Onassis, the former First Lady, in her capacity as an editor at Doubleday publishers. 

Jackson was a keen and wide-ranging reader and amassed a large personal library at Neverland Ranch.  In 1984, a US library reportedly accused him of owing over $1 million in overdue book fines, with officials offering to waive the fines if he returned the books autographed. He amassed a large personal library at Neverland Ranch. (2),

NATURE Jackson had a deep affinity for the natural world and incorporated nature imagery extensively into his work, most notably in the short film for "Earth Song" (1995), in which environmental destruction is central. 

His Neverland Valley Ranch was extensively landscaped with gardens, trees, and flowering plants, and he kept a wide variety of animals on the property. (2)

PETS Jackson's most famous pet was Bubbles, a chimpanzee he acquired in the early 1980s and who travelled with him extensively, appearing in photographs and interviews. Jackson treated Bubbles with an attention and affection that attracted wide comment. (2)

Jackson with his pet chimpanzee Bubbles in 1986

Other animals at Neverland included a ram called Mr. Tibbs, a python called Crusher, and a llama called Louie. 

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Jackson's consuming passions were music, dance, and film. He was an avid collector of art, memorabilia, and antiques, and spent lavishly on items that caught his fancy. He loved watching and re-watching classic films and cartoons.

Jackson had a particular love of amusement rides; his Neverland Ranch featured a full amusement park with rides that he helped design with the input of friend Macaulay Culkin. 

He had a lifelong dream of experiencing ordinary activities that his fame made impossible, including grocery shopping; in 2003, a friend who owned a mall with a supermarket closed the entire complex for a day so that Jackson could fulfil his wish of pushing a basket around a supermarket like a regular person. The shop was staffed by friends and family posing as fellow shoppers and employees. (2)

SCIENCE AND MATHS Jackson held a patent (US Patent 5,255,452, granted 1992) for a special stage shoe device that, used in conjunction with a slot in the stage floor, allowed him and dancers to achieve an extreme forward lean that appeared to defy gravity. The system was employed in the "Smooth Criminal" video and live performances. It represents one of the more unusual intersections of popular entertainment and mechanical engineering. (7)

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Jackson was raised as a Jehovah's Witness by his mother Katherine and was an active member of the faith into his adult life, attending Kingdom Hall meetings with his mother up to four times a week when he was at home, and conducting door-to-door evangelism twice a week as late as 1984 — by which point he was the most famous entertainer in the world. (2)

He formally disassociated from the Jehovah's Witnesses in 1987, reportedly in response to objections from the church to the occult imagery in the "Thriller" video and other aspects of his work. 

In later years he expressed broader spiritual beliefs without committing publicly to a specific faith. 

POLITICS Jackson was not publicly engaged with conventional party politics. His political statements tended to be expressed through his music — most explicitly in songs such as "Black or White," "Earth Song," and "They Don't Care About Us,"  — addressing themes of racial injustice, environmental destruction and poverty.

He was awarded the honorary title of King of Sanwi by the small Ivory Coast kingdom of Sanwi, which observed two days of national mourning upon his death. (2)

SCANDAL Jackson faced child sexual abuse allegations on two major occasions. In 1993, Jordan Chandler's family alleged that Jackson had abused the thirteen-year-old boy. No criminal charges were filed and the civil case was settled out of court for a reported $23 million, with no admission of guilt.

In November 2003, an arrest warrant was issued following allegations by Gavin Arvizo. Jackson was charged with multiple counts of child molestation. After a lengthy and highly publicised trial, he was acquitted on all fourteen counts on June 13, 2005. Jackson consistently denied all allegations of abuse. 

MILITARY RECORD Michael Jackson never served in the military. However, he frequently integrated stylized military uniforms, epaulets, and armbands into his stage costumes and public wardrobe as a symbol of structure and visual authority.

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Jackson was an extraordinarily athletic and disciplined performer, capable of sustaining intense dance routines throughout lengthy concerts. 

He suffered serious injuries on January 27, 1984, when pyrotechnics accidentally ignited his hair during the filming of a Pepsi commercial at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, causing second-degree burns to his scalp. He donated his $1.5 million legal settlement from Pepsi to the Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, California, which named its Michael Jackson Burn Center in his honour. (2)

He underwent at least three rhinoplasties during his lifetime. His autopsy confirmed he suffered from vitiligo, explaining the progressive lightening of his skin, as well as lupus. 

In the years before his death he became increasingly dependent on prescription medications, including powerful sedatives. His autopsy also revealed his tattooed lips and eyebrows, and showed he was in a significantly weakened physical state at the time of his death. 

HOMES Jackson grew up in a small two-bedroom house in Gary, Indiana. 

His most famous residence was Neverland Valley Ranch, a 2,700-acre estate in Santa Ynez Valley, California, which he purchased in 1988 and developed into an extraordinary private fantasy world featuring an amusement park, a zoo, a private railway, a cinema, and elaborately themed gardens. 

After the 2005 trial he largely abandoned Neverland and spent his final years living in rented properties. At the time of his death he was renting a mansion at 100 North Carolwood Drive in the Holmby Hills district of Los Angeles. The contents of this property were subsequently sold at auction for nearly $1 million. (2)

TRAVEL Jackson toured globally throughout his career, performing on every inhabited continent. His tours were among the most elaborate and technically ambitious in entertainment history. He visited hospitals, orphanages, and children's facilities at every tour stop. 

Jackson was reportedly an anxious traveller in private, among his habits being the insistence that wine be served to him in Diet Coke cans on flights so his children would not see him drinking alcohol.  (2)

DEATH On June 25, 2009, Jackson collapsed at his rented mansion in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles. His personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, who had been hired only weeks earlier, attempted to resuscitate him without success. Jackson was pronounced dead at 2:26 PM at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. He was fifty years old. 

His death was ruled a homicide caused by acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication. It was reported that his last words were a request for "milk," his alleged nickname for propofol, the powerful hospital anaesthetic he had been using as a sleep aid. His autopsy confirmed the cause of death and revealed evidence of the tattooing on his lips and eyebrows.

When news of his death broke, it was reported that Twitter was generating more than 456 tweets per second and that internet traffic increased by up to 20%, significantly slowing global internet performance.

Jackson's public memorial service was held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on July 7, 2009, and was broadcast live by most major television networks worldwide. More than 1.2 million people entered a lottery for the 17,500 public tickets available. 

Conrad Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter on November 29, 2011, and sentenced to four years in prison. He served less than two years due to California prison overcrowding and good behaviour provisions.

Despite reportedly being $500 million in debt at the time of his death, Jackson's estate became one of the most profitable in the world in the years that followed, consistently ranking among the highest-earning estates of deceased celebrities.  (2)

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Jackson appeared extensively in film, television, and other media throughout his career. His short films — what he preferred to call his music videos — were landmark productions, including "Thriller" (1983, directed by John Landis), "Bad" (1987, directed by Martin Scorsese), "Black or White" (1991, directed by John Landis), "Scream" (1995, with Janet Jackson, directed by Mark Romanek, the most expensive music video ever made at over $7 million), and "Smooth Criminal." 

Jackson appeared in the theatrical film The Wiz (1978) alongside Diana Ross. His 1988 autobiographical film Moonwalker was released directly to home video and cinema in some markets. He was the subject of Martin Bashir's controversial documentary Living with Michael Jackson (2003). In 2026, a biographical feature film simply titled Michael was released, telling the story of his life and career, produced with the cooperation of the Jackson estate. 

His waxwork appears in five Madame Tussauds museums around the world; only Elvis Presley and Madonna have more figures, with six each. (2)

ACHIEVEMENTS Thriller remains the best-selling album in recorded music history

First Black artist to have a video in heavy rotation on MTV

Record eight Grammy Awards won in a single night (February 28, 1984)

First Super Bowl halftime performer to draw a larger audience than the game itself (1993)

HIStory is the best-selling double album ever released in the United States

Blood on the Dance Floor is the best-selling remix album of all time

First artist to score Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits in five consecutive decades

Cited by Guinness World Records in 2000 as the most philanthropic pop star in history, having donated over $300 million to charity

Holder of a US patent (1992) for an innovative stage performance device

Sources: (1) Wikipedia: Michael Jackson (2) Encyclopaedia of Trivia: Michael Jackson (3) Billboard: Michael Jackson (4) YouTube: Michael Jackson Wanted To Be A Vegetarian (5) Reddit: Was Michael Jackson a vegetarian? (6) Smooth Radio: Michael Jackson Facts (7) Google Patents: US5255452A 

Mahalia Jackson

NAME Mahalia Jackson (born Mahala Jackson). She was globally revered as the "Queen of Gospel Music," a title reflecting her towering status as one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century. 

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Mahalia Jackson was an American gospel singer whose powerful contralto voice transformed religious music and catalyzed the Civil Rights Movement. She was the first gospel artist to achieve massive international commercial success, bridging cultural divides by bringing traditional Black gospel out of localized churches and onto the global stage. 

BIRTH October 26, 1911, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

FAMILY BACKGROUND Jackson was born to Charity Clark and Johnny Jackson, a stevedore and weekend barber, who were unmarried — a common arrangement among Black women in New Orleans at the time. 

Both sets of Mahalia's grandparents were born into slavery — her paternal grandparents on a rice plantation, and her maternal grandparents on a cotton plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish, approximately 100 miles north of New Orleans. 

Her Aunt Mahala "Duke" Paul hosted Charity and her five other sisters and their children in a leaky three-room shotgun house on Water Street in New Orleans' Sixteenth Ward; Mahalia counted as the 13th person living in the house. (1)

The family called her "Halie." (2)

CHILDHOOD Jackson's mother, Charity, became ill and died when Mahalia was five; Aunt Duke then took in Jackson and her half-brother Peter. 

Duke was severe and strict, with a notorious temper. Jackson was required to scrub floors, make moss-filled mattresses and cane chairs, and fill in for her aunts when they were ill, so she rarely attended school for a full week. 

She was born with bowed legs and eye infections, though her eyes healed quickly; her legs began to straighten on their own when she was 14. For her first few years she was nicknamed "Fishhooks" for the curvature of her legs. (

Church became a sanctuary where she found music and safety, often fleeing there to escape her aunt's moods. She sang in the children's choir from age four, and was surrounded by the diverse sounds of New Orleans — second line funeral processions, hot jazz bands, the Sanctified Church's beat-driven music, and Bessie Smith's blues wafting from her cousin Fred's record player. Already possessing a big voice at age 12, she joined the junior choir. (3)

EDUCATION Jackson attended McDonough School 24 in New Orleans but dropped out when the family needed her more at home; she left school with only an eighth-grade education. (4)

Later in Chicago, she earned a beautician's license from Madam C. J. Walker's school and used it to open a successful beauty salon in Bronzeville. 

CAREER RECORD 1927 She moved from New Orleans to Chicago during the Great Migration. She joined the Greater Salem Baptist Church choir and soon began touring with the Johnson Gospel Singers, one of the earliest professional gospel groups. 

1937 She made her first commercial recordings for Decca Records, including "God's Gonna Separate the Wheat from the Tares." However, these early releases were not immediate commercial successes. 

1947 She signed with Apollo Records and recorded W. Herbert Brewster's "Move On Up a Little Higher" on September 12, 1947. Released later that year, the single went platinum, selling millions of copies. It thrust Jackson into the national spotlight, revolutionizing the recording industry and solidifying her status as an internationally famous gospel star. 

1950 Mahalia Jackson became the first gospel artist to perform at New York City’s prestigious Carnegie Hall. 

1954 She signed with Columbia Records, hosting her own radio show on CBS and expanding her reach to a broader, mainstream international audience. 

1961 Mahalia Jackson performed at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy on January 20, 1961. 

1963 She delivered a monumental performance of "How I Got Over" at the historic March on Washington on August 28, 1963, right before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. 

1968 Mahalia Jackson sang Dr. King’s favorite hymn, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord," at his funeral following his assassination. 

1971 She performed her final formal concert in Munich, Germany, on September 24, 1971, before collapsing from illness.

APPEARANCE Jackson was a large, imposing woman with a powerful physical presence to match her voice. She gained weight significantly during the demanding touring years of the 1950s, partly due to the stress of Jim Crow-era travel conditions. 

On stage, she was famed for her enormous presence — passionate and at times frenetic, she wept and demonstrated physical expressions of joy while singing, sometimes lifting the hem of her robes a few inches from the ground, drawing accusations from some conservative ministers of employing "snake hips" while dancing when the spirit moved her. 

Jackson in the Concertgebouw (1961) By Dave Brinkman 

FASHION On stage, Jackson typically wore loose-fitting robes — pastors had urged her to adopt them to conceal her physical movements while singing. 

Off stage, she was practical in her dress; on one occasion in Hamburg during her 1961 European tour, after an audience demanded so many encores that stage hands removed the microphone, she changed into her street clothes and Indian moccasins and sang one final song regardless. (5)

CHARACTER Jackson was described by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as "stubborn, contentious and not altogether a model of propriety," yet "God-fearing" and possessed of an extraordinary moral code. (6) 

She consistently refused to sing secular music or perform in theatres and nightclubs, despite enormous financial inducements — including an offer of $5,000 a week at New York's Village Vanguard. 

Jackson was quietly generous, secretly paying the college tuition of several young people, and her phone number was listed in the Chicago public telephone directory so that anyone could call her. She delighted in feeding guests, some of whom stayed days or weeks at her home at her own invitation.  Martin Luther King Jr. considered Jackson's house a place where he could truly relax. 

SPEAKING VOICE Jackson spoke with the cadences of her New Orleans upbringing. The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture noted that "to speak of Mahalia Jackson's voice is to speak of magic and mystery and majesty." (2) 

Jackson herself was forthright and direct: when a Chicago pastor accused her of bringing "twisting jazz" into his church, she retorted without hesitation, "This is the way we sing down South!" 

When asked about the relationship between gospel and jazz she replied memorably, "Baby, don't you know the Devil stole the beat from the Lord?" 

SENSE OF HUMOUR Jackson had a warm, earthy wit. After being mobbed by adoring crowds during her 1964 European tour, she laughed and declared, "I thought I was the Beatles!" 

She was known for her directness and her ability to laugh at the absurdities she encountered, particularly given the ironies of being simultaneously celebrated in concert halls and refused service at segregated restaurants. (7)

RELATIONSHIPS Jackson married twice and had no children. Her first marriage, in 1935, was to Isaac "Ike" Hockenhull, a chemist working as a postman during the Depression, who impressed her with his manners and attentiveness. 

The marriage was troubled: Hockenhull was a compulsive gambler who repeatedly pressured Jackson to pursue secular singing and saw no artistic value in gospel. In one incident he gambled away a large cash sum she had hidden under a rug; in another, a new Buick he had bought her was repossessed on Bronzeville's busiest street after he used it as loan collateral. They divorced amicably in 1943. 

Her second marriage, in 1964, was to Sigmond Galloway, a former musician working in the construction business in Gary, Indiana, whom she had met through friends. 

Only weeks after the wedding, Jackson had a heart attack while driving home from a concert. Galloway proved unreliable, leaving for long periods during her convalescence and later attempting to strike her on two occasions — the second time thwarted when she ducked and he broke his hand on a piece of furniture.

The marriage dissolved, with Galloway requesting a jury trial to publicize their marital details, but when his infidelities were proven in testimony, the judge declined to award him any of Jackson's assets. (8)

Jackson was a personal friend of Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King; the two families regularly hosted one another, with Jackson driving to Atlanta for Thanksgiving with the Kings and them frequently staying at her Chicago home. (9)

MONEY AND FAME Jackson was a shrewd businesswoman who counted heads and tickets at concerts to ensure she was being paid fairly, and demanded payment in cash when touring the South, as it was often impossible for a Black woman to cash checks away from Chicago.

In later years she partnered with comedian Minnie Pearl in a chain of restaurants called Mahalia Jackson's Chicken Dinners and lent her name to a line of canned foods. Jackson purchased a condominium in Chicago overlooking Lake Michigan and owned a beauty salon, a flower shop, and a building as a landlord. 

She established the Mahalia Jackson Foundation, which eventually paid tuition for 50 college students, and fundraised for a nondenominational temple for young people in Chicago to learn gospel music. (1)

FOOD AND DRINK Jackson thoroughly enjoyed cooking from childhood and took great pleasure in feeding all her visitors — some of whom she invited to stay for days or weeks. 

During the Jim Crow era, rather than patronize segregated restaurants, she carried her own food with her when touring the South so that she would not be subjected to racial humiliation. (7)

Jackson shopped for fine crystal on her 1961 European tour — in Hamburg she bought cake dishes, goblets, and coffee mugs — so that she could serve guests in grand style at her Chicago home. (5)

In later life she partnered in a chain of restaurants, Mahalia Jackson's Chicken Dinners.

GOSPEL CAREER There are some people who sing, and then there are people who appear to have been personally issued a voice by Heaven for demonstration purposes. Mahalia Jackson rather falls into the second category.

Her contralto was so formidable that Martin Luther King Jr., who was not generally given to casual exaggeration, described it as something that comes along “once in a millennium,” which is a reassuringly long gap if you’re in the business of being impressed. Gospel historian Horace C. Boyer went further, suggesting that through a combination of voice, personality, and what one suspects was a certain holy stubbornness, she persuaded the world to treat gospel music as its own majestic creature rather than a side note to spirituals. Over forty years, she sold around 22 million records, which is a great many opportunities for people to feel quietly rearranged inside.

Jackson began singing in church at the age of four in New Orleans, which is the sort of start that suggests God likes to get an early draft in. By 1927 she had moved to Chicago, joined Greater Salem Baptist Church, and become part of the Johnson Gospel Singers — the city’s first Black gospel group, which must have felt rather like inventing a new language and then immediately being expected to speak it fluently.

Around 1937, she teamed up with Thomas A. Dorsey, who is often credited with coining the phrase “gospel music,” and who wisely encouraged her to improvise. This was rather like handing a thunderstorm permission to roam freely. During this time she recorded for Decca Records, who attempted — with the optimism of people who clearly hadn’t met her properly — to steer her toward blues. Jackson declined with admirable clarity: blues, she said, were songs of despair; gospel songs were songs of hope. One imagines the conversation ended there, possibly with the furniture looking slightly chastened.

In 1946, an Apollo Records scout named Art Freeman heard her warming up at the Golden Gate Ballroom in Harlem — which is rather like discovering that someone idly doodling in the margins is actually Michelangelo. He signed her, and the result was “Move On Up a Little Higher” (1947), a song that sold two million copies, reached number two on the Billboard charts, and proceeded to do something gospel had not done before: walk calmly into the secular charts and make itself at home.

Jackson had the unnerving habit of saying no to things that most people would say yes to immediately and then boast about for years. She refused nightclub bookings, theatre engagements, blues performances, and even a $5,000-a-week offer at the Village Vanguard — which suggests either remarkable conviction or a deep suspicion of comfortable chairs and applause in the wrong places. She also refused to perform before segregated audiences, which was not so much a career move as a moral one.

And yet, despite all this refusal, she managed to bring gospel to the mainstream. Her 1956 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show introduced millions to gospel music, while her 1950 concert at Carnegie Hall drew a racially integrated audience — a quietly revolutionary thing to do in a world that often preferred its revolutions noisy and unsuccessful.

In 1954, she became the first gospel artist signed to Columbia Records, earning a $50,000-a-year contract and hosting her own CBS radio show. She toured Europe, performed at Royal Albert Hall, and even sang privately for the Japanese Imperial Family — which is the sort of itinerary that suggests the entire planet had decided it might quite like to listen.

A French jazz enthusiast, Hugues Panassié, discovered her records by accident and took them back to France, where she became the first gospel singer to win the Académie Charles Cros Grand Prix du Disque — proof that sometimes the most significant cultural exchanges begin in waiting rooms.

In 1958, she collaborated with Duke Ellington on Black, Brown and Beige, performing “Come Sunday,” a piece written specifically for her voice. This is widely regarded as one of the most emotionally powerful recordings ever made, which is saying something in a world that contains both heartbreak and tax returns.

Jackson’s singing was inseparable from the civil rights movement, not in a symbolic way but in the practical sense that she was often right there, singing before Martin Luther King Jr. spoke. At the March on Washington, she performed just before his address and, according to several accounts, called out mid-speech: “Tell them about the dream, Martin!” — a moment that may have nudged him away from his prepared remarks and into history.

When King felt discouraged, he would sometimes telephone her simply to hear her sing, which is either the most touching detail in this story or the most efficient use of a telephone ever recorded.

Jackson was later inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, the R&B Music Hall of Fame, and the Grammy Hall of Fame, and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award — which is a great many halls for one voice to echo through.

She influenced artists like Aretha Franklin (whom she helped raise), Della Reese, Albertina Walker, and Mavis Staples, and without her, the gospel thread running through soul, R&B, and rock would be noticeably thinner — like a tapestry missing its brightest, most stubbornly luminous strand.

In short, Mahalia Jackson did not merely sing gospel music. She appears to have explained it to the world — firmly, beautifully, and at a volume that made ignoring it entirely impractical.

MUSIC AND ARTS  Completely self-taught, she had a keen instinct for music, with her delivery marked by extensive improvisation with melody and rhythm.  Her primary musical influences were blues singer Bessie Smith — her favorite — as well as Mamie Smith and Ma Rainey, whose styles she heard on records as a child. 

Jackson's appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1957 and 1958 extended her influence into jazz audiences. 

LITERATURE Her primary reading material throughout her life was the Holy Bible, which she studied daily. In a 1964 interview published in Pageant magazine, Jackson stated in her own words: "I still read the Bible every day and ask God to give me the understanding of His Word. For the Bible says, 'Seek Me, learn of Me.'" She also began concerts with a Bible reading — Time magazine reported that she opened performances with one "to give me inner strength." (10)

In 1966, she published a widely read autobiography titled Movin' On Up. Co-written with journalist Evan McLeod Wylie, it details her journey from the poverty of New Orleans to global prominence.

NATURE As a child in New Orleans, Jackson spent time playing along the levees, catching fish and crabs with other children. 

She grew up surrounded by the sensory landscape of Uptown New Orleans: banana steamships on the Mississippi River, acorns roasting in Audubon Park, and the rich sounds of street life. (3) 

PETS The three-room shotgun house in which Jackson grew up as one of 13 people also housed a dog. 

While her hectic international touring schedule made traditional pet ownership difficult, she harbored a great fondness for animals and appreciated the warmth they brought to domestic households.

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Jackson's abiding passion outside of singing was cooking — she cooked for large groups of friends and customers on a two-burner stove in the rear of her beauty salon. 

Image by Perplexity

She enjoyed shopping, particularly for fine crystal and homeware for her Chicago home during European tours.

SCIENCE AND MATHS Jackson had no formal involvement or background in the sciences, though she possessed a sharp, practical aptitude for handling financial figures and managing her personal business contracts later in life.

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Jackson's entire career and personal code of conduct were grounded in Baptist Christian faith. She described church as a home where she found "music and safety" from childhood.

After her grandfather had a stroke and she prayed for his recovery, she swore never to enter a theatre again — and kept that promise for life. 

She vowed exclusively to sing gospel, declining enormous financial rewards from secular venues, and refused to appear in theatres. 

POLITICS Jackson was one of the most prominent gospel figures associated with the civil rights movement. She sang to support the Montgomery Bus Boycott and traveled to the deepest parts of the segregated South with Martin Luther King. (11)

Mahalia Jackson appeared at the 1956 Democratic National Convention, later campaigning for John F. Kennedy and singing the national anthem at his Inaugural Ball in 1961. After witnessing "Bloody Sunday" on television, she sent President Lyndon Johnson a telegram urging him to protect the marchers in Selma, Alabama. 

Throughout her life, she performed at fundraisers for the United Negro College Fund, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Prayer Pilgrimage Breakfast. 

Following Dr. King's assassination in 1968, Jackson retired from political work and personal endorsements.

SCANDAL Jackson's second husband, Sigmond Galloway, attempted to embarrass her publicly by requesting a jury trial for their divorce — highly unusual — in order to publicize their marital difficulties. However, when his infidelities were proven in court, the judge declined to award him any of Jackson's assets or properties. (8)

MILITARY RECORD She did not serve in the military, but during World War II and the Korean War, she frequently performed at special benefit concerts and USO events to uplift troop morale.

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Jackson was diagnosed with sarcoidosis — a systemic inflammatory disease — during her first European tour in 1952, following a hysterectomy in which doctors also found numerous granulomas in her abdomen. 

The disease spread to her heart by 1964, when she suffered a heart attack while driving home from a concert. From this point she was plagued by near-constant fatigue, bouts of tachycardia, and high blood pressure. 

Jackson experienced inflammation in her eyes and painful cramps in her legs and hands in her final years. Despite these serious conditions she continued performing two- and three-hour concerts. 

She died in January 1972 following surgery to remove a bowel obstruction, with heart failure and diabetes complications also cited. 

HOMES Jackson grew up in a leaky three-room shotgun house on Water Street, New Orleans, shared by 13 people. 

After moving to Chicago around 1927, she lived in rented accommodation and later in an apartment building she came to own in Bronzeville. 

In 1956, she purchased a house at 8358 South Indiana Avenue in the all-white Chatham Village neighborhood of Chicago for $40,000 — a move that prompted death threats and a shooting through her front window, leading the Mayor of Chicago to post police outside her home for a year. A historical marker has since been placed in front of the house honoring her legacy. 

In later life she also owned a lavish condominium in Chicago overlooking Lake Michigan. 

TRAVEL Jackson toured extensively throughout the United States and internationally. 

She was the first gospel recording artist to tour Europe, embarking on multiple continental tours from 1952 onward. During these travels, Jackson performed at London’s Royal Albert Hall—becoming the first gospel singer to grace its stage since the Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1872—as well as across Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and Israel. While visiting the Holy Land, she famously knelt to pray at Calvary. 

In later years, her international reach expanded to the Caribbean, Liberia in West Africa, and Japan, where she became the first Western singer since World War II to give a private concert for the Japanese Imperial Family. She also undertook a U.S. State Department-sponsored tour of India, performing in Kolkata, New Delhi, Madras, and Mumbai. 

Traveling at home presented its own challenges; while touring the Jim Crow South, she purchased a large Cadillac to travel and sleep in rather than face the humiliation of segregated motels. (7)

DEATH Mahalia Jackson died on January 27, 1972, following surgery to remove a bowel obstruction, at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, Illinois. She was 60 years old. Heart failure and diabetes complications were also cited. 

Her funeral was held at Chicago's Greater Salem Baptist Church on January 31, 1972. Over 40,000 mourners attended the open-casket service. The service featured a closing performance of "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" by Aretha Franklin. Among the mourners were Coretta Scott King, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, and Sammy Davis Jr. (7) 

She was buried in Providence Memorial Park in Metairie, Louisiana. 

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Jackson appeared multiple times on The Ed Sullivan Show (from 1952 onward), and hosted her own radio and television programs under the title The Mahalia Jackson Show, broadcast from Chicago in the 1950s. 

She performed on television programs hosted by Arthur Godfrey, Dinah Shore, Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Steve Allen, Red Skelton, Milton Berle, Jimmy Durante, Danny Kaye, Johnny Cash, and Flip Wilson. 

She appeared in the films St. Louis Blues (1958), Imitation of Life (1959), and The Best Man (1964).  She appeared in the concert film Jazz on a Summer's Day (1959) from the Newport Jazz Festival. 

Jackson featured in a broadcast of the television special Wide Wide World, singing Christmas carols live from her childhood church in New Orleans. 

In 2021, Lifetime produced a biopic, Mahalia, starring Danielle Brooks. 

ACHIEVEMENTS Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient; three competitive Grammy Awards winner. 

Inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, National Recording Registry, and the Rock & Roll, Gospel, and R&B Music Halls of Fame. 

Inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame. 

First gospel recording artist to tour Europe.

First gospel artist to sign with Columbia Records. 

"Move On Up a Little Higher" (1947) — the first gospel single to hit the Billboard top two and the highest-selling gospel single in history. 

Estimated 22 million records sold. 

Sources: (1) Wikipedia (2) Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (3) MahaliaJackson.us (4) Britannica Students (5) Mahalia Jackson in Concert, Hamburg 1961 (YouTube) (6) Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction (7) Encyclopaedia of Trivia (8) MEAWW (9) The Wrap (10) Old Magazine Articles (11) NPR

Andrew Jackson

NAME Andrew Jackson. He was affectionately known by his troops and the American public as "Old Hickory" due to his legendary toughness, and sometimes disparagingly by political opponents as "King Andrew I" for his assertive use of presidential power. 

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Andrew Jackson was the 7th President of the United States (1829–1837) and the founder of the modern Democratic Party. He is famous for his victory at the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812, his fierce opposition to the Second Bank of the United States, and his controversial policy of Indian Removal. He was the first "frontier president" and the first to survive an assassination attempt.

BIRTH Andrew Jackson was born on March 15, 1767, in the Waxhaws region on the border of North and South Carolina, southwest of the Uwharrie Mountains. The exact location of his birth — whether on the North or South Carolina side of the border — has been disputed, and both states have historically claimed him. (1)

FAMILY BACKGROUND His parents were Andrew Jackson Sr. and Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, Scots-Irish Presbyterian colonists who had emigrated from Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Ireland, approximately two years before his birth. Jackson's father died in a logging accident in February 1767, at the age of 29 — three weeks before his son Andrew was born. 

Jackson was raised by his mother and was the youngest of three sons. His brothers Hugh and Robert also served in the American Revolution; Hugh died from heat exhaustion after the Battle of Stono Ferry in 1779, and Robert died from smallpox contracted while a British prisoner of war in 1781. His mother Elizabeth died of cholera later that same year while nursing American prisoners of war in Charleston, leaving the fourteen-year-old Jackson an orphan. (2)

CHILDHOOD Jackson grew up in poverty on the Carolina frontier. 

As a boy, he served as a courier and messenger for the Continental Army during the American Revolution. At the age of thirteen, he and his brother Robert were captured by British forces. When a British officer ordered Jackson to clean his boots, he refused, and the officer struck him with a sword, leaving permanent scars on his left hand and head — an act Jackson never forgave. He was taken prisoner and held in harsh conditions before being released, partly due to his mother's intervention. (3)

Below is The Brave Boy of the Waxhaws, an 1876 Currier and Ives lithograph depicting the story of a young Andrew Jackson defending himself from a British officer during the American Revolutionary War

EDUCATION Jackson received only a rudimentary frontier education at local schools in the Waxhaws. He was taught to read and was known as a child to read newspapers aloud to illiterate neighbors. 

He later studied law in Salisbury, North Carolina, reading in the offices of local attorneys Spruce Macay and John Stokes. He was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1787. 

He was the first U.S. President who did not have a college education and was not born into a wealthy family. (2)

CAREER RECORD 1788: Appointed prosecutor of the Western District of North Carolina (now Tennessee); he moved to Nashville to begin his legal career.

1796: Served as a delegate to the Tennessee constitutional convention and was elected as the state’s first U.S. Representative.

1797–1798: Served briefly as a U.S. Senator before resigning to return to Tennessee.

1798–1804: Served as a judge on the Tennessee Superior Court.

1802: Elected major general of the Tennessee militia.

1814–1815: Led U.S. forces to victory in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend and the Battle of New Orleans, becoming a national hero.

1821: Served as the first military governor of Florida after its acquisition from Spain.

1823–1825: Returned to the U.S. Senate representing Tennessee.

1829–1837: Served two terms as the 7th President of the United States.

APPEARANCE Jackson was tall and lean, standing approximately 6 feet 1 inch, with a thin, angular face, a strong jaw, and piercing blue eyes. He had a shock of thick, silver-white hair that stood nearly upright, giving him a distinctive and commanding appearance. 

His face bore the scar on his forehead from the British officer's sword blow during his captivity as a boy. 

Jackson had a tomahawk tattoo on his thigh. (2), (4)

Formal portrait, c. 1835

FASHION Jackson was known for dressing in the style of a Southern gentleman planter — dark, well-tailored frock coats, high cravats, and tall hats. In his later years as President, his white hair and stately, formal dress gave him an almost aristocratic bearing that contrasted sharply with his rough frontier origins. He favored the fashions befitting a man of his hard-won social standing. (2)

CHARACTER Jackson had a fierce, volcanic temperament. He was quick to anger and slow to forgive, holding grudges for decades. He was intensely loyal to friends and allies and equally ferocious toward enemies. 

He possessed enormous personal courage and iron determination. Contemporaries described him as simultaneously warm and generous to those he loved and ruthlessly vindictive toward those who crossed him. His troops said he was "tough as old hickory" wood on the battlefield, and the nickname "Old Hickory" stuck for life. 

Jackson had an imperious streak and a deep conviction that his own judgment was superior — qualities that made him a decisive leader but also a polarizing one. (3)

SPEAKING VOICE Jackson spoke with a strong Scots-Irish frontier accent. He was not a polished orator in the classical tradition of earlier presidents but was known for direct, forceful speech that resonated with ordinary Americans. His communication style was blunt and personal, which helped forge his image as a man of the people. (2)

SENSE OF HUMOUR Jackson had a dry, sardonic wit. He was capable of warmth and humor in private company, particularly with close friends and family. However, he was also deeply sensitive to slights and insults, and humor at his or his wife Rachel's expense could provoke explosive fury. (4)

RELATIONSHIPS Shortly after arriving in Nashville in 1788, Jackson boarded with Rachel Stockley Donelson, widow of pioneer John Donelson. There he met her daughter Rachel Donelson Robards, who was in an unhappy marriage with Captain Lewis Robards, a man subject to fits of jealous rage. The couple separated in 1790. Jackson and Rachel went through a marriage ceremony, but it was not legally valid because her divorce from Robards had not yet been finalized. They married legally on January 17, 1794, once the divorce was confirmed. The controversy over their marriage — with political opponents branding Rachel a bigamist and adulteress — was a lifelong wound for Jackson, who fought numerous duels defending her honor.

Rachel Jackson. Portrait by Ralph E. W. Earl, 1823

Rachel died of a heart attack on December 22, 1828, two weeks after Jackson's presidential election victory and two months before his inauguration. A distraught Jackson had to be physically pulled away from her body so the undertaker could prepare it. He never fully recovered from her death and wore a miniature portrait of her around his neck for the rest of his life. He blamed her death on the stress caused by his political enemies' attacks on her character during the campaign.  (2)

MONEY AND FAME Jackson rose from poverty to become a wealthy Tennessee planter and slave owner. He acquired his plantation, The Hermitage, near Nashville, and at the height of his prosperity owned over 100 enslaved people. 

His fame, particularly after the Battle of New Orleans, made him arguably the most popular American public figure of his era. 

He paradoxically opposed paper money and championed hard currency — gold and silver coins — yet his portrait has appeared on the U.S. $20 bill since 1928, replacing Grover Cleveland. (3)

FOOD AND DRINK Jackson was a man of the frontier in his eating habits, at least in theory. Breakfast at The Hermitage typically consisted of corn cakes with blackberry jam, chicken hash, and strong black coffee. He preferred plain American cooking over the French cuisine that was fashionable in Washington, which probably says as much about his feelings toward France as it does about his palate.

In practice, however, his tastes were broader than the frontier legend suggests. He was also fond of tenderloin, lamb chops, oysters, wild duck and goose, and fried ham, washed down with French wines — a detail his political image-makers presumably kept quiet. He was also known to enjoy whiskey.

His most celebrated food moment came when a New York dairy farmer sent him a 635-kilogram wheel of cheddar cheese as a gift. Jackson, in a characteristic act of populist generosity — or possibly because he had absolutely no idea what else to do with 635 kilograms of cheese — opened the White House to the public. Two thousand visitors arrived and consumed the entire thing in two hours, leaving the carpets and curtains smelling of cheese for weeks. 

At his 1829 inauguration, he invited the public to the White House for a "cup of grog," and they arrived in such numbers that the celebration descended into a drunken mob, with revelers standing on furniture and breaking china. The chaos was only dispersed when tubs of punch were moved to the White House lawn. (2)

1829 White House inauguration mob by Perplexity

MUSIC AND ARTS Jackson was not particularly noted for an interest in music or the fine arts. His tastes were those of a frontier-bred Southern gentleman rather than a cultured East Coast aristocrat. (2)

LITERATURE Jackson was a voracious reader of newspapers throughout his life and used the press skillfully as a political tool. He was not a literary man in the conventional sense but wrote extensively in the form of letters — his correspondence is voluminous and reveals a sharp, direct mind. He was reported to have had a poor grasp of spelling throughout his life. (2)

NATURE Jackson spent much of his life on the Tennessee frontier and was deeply connected to the land as a farmer and planter. The Hermitage plantation was his sanctuary and retreat throughout his life. 

PETS Jackson kept a pet parrot named Poll (also recorded as Pol), an African Grey parrot given to him by his wife Rachel. He taught the bird to curse fluently. At Jackson's funeral in June 1845, Poll caused a scene by swearing loudly and continuously at the mourners and had to be removed from the proceedings before the service could begin. (5)

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Jackson was passionate about horse racing and bred and raced thoroughbreds at The Hermitage. A duel with Charles Dickinson in 1806 grew partly out of a dispute over a wager on a horse race. 

He was also an avid hunter and enjoyed the outdoor pursuits typical of frontier Southern life. (2)

SCIENCE AND MATHS Jackson showed no particular interest in science or mathematics. His intellectual energies were directed toward law, politics, and military affairs. (2)

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Jackson was raised Presbyterian by his Irish immigrant parents and retained a broadly Protestant faith throughout his life, though he resisted formal church membership for much of his adult years, reportedly not wanting to appear politically opportunistic. He joined the Presbyterian Church formally only in 1838, in his retirement. 

His personal philosophy centered on concepts of honor, personal courage, loyalty, and the sovereignty of the common man over elite interests.  (2)

PRESIDENCY Andrew Jackson arrived at the White House in 1829 as perhaps the first truly self-made American president — a man born in a log cabin before the nation had quite decided whether log cabins were admirable symbols of rugged virtue or merely evidence of poor planning. His supporters adored him with the sort of enthusiasm usually reserved for victorious generals, miracle tonics, and unusually talented circus dogs.

For his inauguration, Jackson made the bold and catastrophically optimistic decision to invite the public into the White House for refreshments. This sounds charming in theory. In practice, it produced several thousand citizens stampeding through the presidential residence in muddy boots, climbing on furniture, smashing china, and consuming alcohol with the urgency of men preparing for prohibition a century early. One observer described the crowd as resembling a mob that had captured a palace in wartime. White House staff eventually restored order by placing tubs of whiskey punch on the lawn outside, thereby luring the masses away from the building with techniques still commonly employed in dealing with bears at American campgrounds.

Once in office, Jackson governed much as he had fought battles: aggressively, personally, and with a deep conviction that disagreement was a form of sabotage. He introduced what became known as the “spoils system,” cheerfully replacing experienced officeholders with loyal supporters under the comforting theory that government jobs were simple enough for any politically dependable person to perform. This was rather like deciding that because one can sit in a chair, one is qualified to build the chair.

Jackson’s war against the Second Bank of the United States became less a policy dispute than an extended blood feud. Jackson regarded the Bank as a nest of privilege and corruption; the Bank regarded Jackson as a barely housebroken cannonball in human form. Jackson vetoed its recharter, removed federal deposits, and effectively killed it altogether. The Senate censured him for exceeding his authority — still the only presidential censure ever formally issued — whereupon Jackson spent the next several years ensuring the censure itself was erased from the record, an act carrying the unmistakable energy of a man storming back into a saloon because he has just remembered a second insult.

Remarkably, Jackson also managed to eliminate the entire national debt in 1835, the only president ever to do so. Americans have since treated this achievement much as modern people treat the idea of walking to the Moon — technically possible, but not something anyone intends to attempt again.

Yet Jackson’s presidency contains one stain so enormous that no amount of frontier swagger or populist mythology can obscure it. In 1830 he signed the Indian Removal Act, which led to the forced displacement of tens of thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral lands. The resulting Trail of Tears brought disease, starvation, and death on a horrifying scale. It remains one of the darkest episodes in American history, carried out with bureaucratic efficiency and moral blindness so complete it is still difficult to comprehend.

And because Andrew Jackson’s life refused to observe ordinary standards of plausibility, he also survived the first attempted assassination of a sitting American president in 1835. The attacker fired two pistols at point-blank range. Both misfired. Statistically, this was astonishing. Jackson’s response was not to flee or seek cover, but to attack the would-be assassin with his cane while bystanders wrestled the man away. Which, in the end, tells you nearly everything about Andrew Jackson: a president who approached politics, warfare, insults, banking policy, and attempted murder with essentially the same emotional setting.

1835 lithograph of the attempted assassination of Andrew Jackson, published by Endicott & Co

POLITICS Jackson was the founding figure of the Democratic Party and championed what became known as Jacksonian Democracy — the expansion of voting rights to all white men, the dismantling of what he saw as corrupt elite institutions, and the supremacy of the will of the ordinary citizen. 

His major political acts included the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which authorized the forced displacement of Native American tribes from their ancestral homelands to territories west of the Mississippi River — a policy that resulted in the deaths of thousands along what became known as the Trail of Tears. 

He waged a fierce political war against the Second Bank of the United States, which he regarded as a corrupt institution serving the wealthy at the expense of ordinary Americans, ultimately vetoing its recharter and removing federal deposits from it.

On March 28, 1834, the U.S. Senate voted to censure President Jackson for violating the Constitution by his removal of federal deposits from the Second Bank — the only time in U.S. history a sitting president was censured by the Senate. Jackson successfully had the censure expunged from the Senate record in 1837.

Jackson was also credited with the first use of a supporter's baby as a political prop, during an 1833 tour of the eastern states — a tradition that has never died. (2), (3)

SCANDAL The most persistent scandal of Jackson's life was the circumstances of his marriage to Rachel Donelson. Their first ceremony took place before her divorce from her first husband, Lewis Robards, was legally finalized, making the union technically bigamous. Though they married legally in 1794, political opponents used the issue relentlessly throughout his career, most viciously during the 1828 presidential campaign, accusing Rachel of adultery and bigamy. Jackson held these attacks responsible for the deterioration of Rachel's health and her death in December 1828. (2)

Jackson was involved in as many as 100 duels over the course of his life — a figure that raises the question of quite how much spare time he had — many fought over matters of personal and political honour, with defending Rachel's reputation among the most celebrated motivations. The most notorious was his duel with Charles Dickinson on May 30, 1806, which began over Dickinson's accusation that Jackson had cheated on a horse race wager, compounded by an insult to Rachel. Dickinson fired first, breaking two of Jackson's ribs and lodging a bullet approximately two inches from his heart. Jackson, in a detail that tells you everything about the man, stayed upright, took careful aim, and fired — only for his pistol to jam at half-cock. He re-cocked it and fired again, killing Dickinson. This second pull of the trigger was widely regarded as a violation of the code duello, and many contemporaries considered it a cold-blooded act rather than a fair fight. Jackson was unmoved by the criticism.

The bullet never came out. It sat two inches from his heart for 39 years, until his death in 1845 — a permanent reminder of the morning he was shot in a field in Kentucky and decided it was the other man's problem. He was never prosecuted for murder. (4)

Andrew Jackson's famous duel over a horse

MILITARY RECORD Jackson served as a teenage messenger for the Continental Army during the American Revolution and was captured by British forces at the age of thirteen. His refusal to clean a British officer's boots earned him a sword blow that left scars he carried for life.

His brothers both died as a result of the war, and his mother died of illness contracted while nursing prisoners — leaving him the sole survivor of his immediate family by age fourteen.

He rose through the Tennessee militia, being elected Major General in 1802. During the War of 1812 he led forces in the Creek War (1813–1814), defeating the Red Stick Creek faction at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in March 1814 — a victory that effectively ended the Creek War. He was subsequently given command of U.S. forces in the South.

His greatest military triumph came at the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815, where his forces — comprising regular army troops, militia from several states and territories, free Black soldiers, Choctaw fighters, and the pirates of Jean Lafitte — decisively defeated a veteran British army, inflicting devastating casualties while sustaining minimal losses. The battle made him a national hero, though it was fought after the Treaty of Ghent had already ended the war (news had not yet reached New Orleans).

He was a strict officer but was deeply popular with his troops, who gave him the lasting nickname "Old Hickory" for his endurance and toughness on campaign. (2) 

Colored wood engraving of Jackson rallying the troops at New Orleans

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Jackson's health was a long chronicle of injuries and illness. He carried two bullets in his body for most of his adult life — one lodged close to his heart from the Dickinson duel of 1806, which could never be safely removed; a second in his shoulder from a brawl with Thomas Hart Benton in 1813, which was removed without anesthetic after approximately twenty years. 

He suffered from chronic headaches, abdominal pain, and respiratory problems throughout his life, likely related to the bullets and to tuberculosis. 

Jackson was also afflicted by osteomyelitis (bone infection) and dysentery. Despite these ailments, he maintained a powerful physical presence and iron will throughout his public life. 

In his later retirement years his health deteriorated significantly. He died of chronic tuberculosis, dropsy (edema), and heart failure. (2)

HOMES Jackson's primary home was The Hermitage, his plantation estate located near Nashville, Tennessee, which he acquired in stages from 1804 onward. He expanded and improved it throughout his life, and it became a substantial cotton plantation. He retired there after his presidency and died there. The Hermitage is now a museum and National Historic Landmark. (6)

The Hermitage around 1831

Jackson lived briefly in various frontier lodgings in his early years, including as a boarder with the Donelson family when he first arrived in Nashville in 1788. 

During his presidency he resided in the White House in Washington, D.C.

TRAVEL Jackson's life was defined by constant movement across the American frontier, from his early trek from the Carolinas to Nashville to his extensive military campaigns across the South and Southwest. He never traveled to Europe, spending his life instead traversing the emerging American territories by horseback and carriage. 

As President, he conducted a notable tour of the eastern states in 1833, during which he made history on June 6, 1833: he became the first sitting U.S. President to ride a railway, boarding a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad train at Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland, for a pleasure trip to Baltimore.

DEATH Andrew Jackson died on June 8, 1845, at The Hermitage, at the age of 78. The cause of death was chronic tuberculosis, dropsy, and heart failure. 

He was buried in the garden of The Hermitage, beside his wife Rachel. 

His funeral was attended by family, friends, politicians, and enslaved members of his household — and was disrupted when his pet parrot Poll began swearing so loudly and persistently that it had to be removed before the service could proceed.  (2),

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Jackson has been portrayed in numerous films and television productions. He was portrayed by Charlton Heston in The President's Lady (1953) and The Buccaneer (1958). Brian Keith played him in The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory (1987). 

He has also been portrayed in various historical documentaries. 

In the Broadway musical Hamilton (2015), Jackson is referenced as a successor to Aaron Burr's political legacy. 

Jackson famously appeared on the U.S. $20 bill from 1928 onward, though plans to replace his image with that of Harriet Tubman have been debated and delayed.

The first bronze equestrian statue of Jackson was unveiled in Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C., in 1853, sculpted by Clark Mills — notably the first equestrian statue cast in the United States. (6)

ACHIEVEMENTS Military hero of the War of 1812; victor at the Battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1815

Seventh President of the United States, 1829–1837; founder of the Democratic Party

First President from a non-wealthy, non-elite background; first from west of the Appalachians

Only President under whose administration the United States was entirely debt-free (briefly, around 1835)

Negotiated the Jackson Purchase of Chickasaw lands in western Tennessee (1818); co-founder of Memphis, Tennessee (1819)

Survived the first assassination attempt on a U.S. President (January 30, 1835), when both of Richard Lawrence's pistols misfired — odds estimated at approximately 125,000 to 1

His portrait has appeared on the U.S. $20 bill since 1928

Sources: (1) Wikipedia: Andrew Jackson (2) The White House: Andrew Jackson (3) Encyclopædia Britannica: Andrew Jackson (4) Encyclopaedia of Trivia: Andrew Jackson (5) Smithsonian Magazine: Andrew Jackson's Parrot (6) National Park Service: The Hermitage