Joe Jackson dead: Patriarch of US musical family dies aged 89

The Jackson patriarch had been in ill health

Joseph "Joe" Jackson, the patriarch of the Jackson musical family dynasty, died Wednesday in Las Vegas.

"We are deeply saddened by Mr. Jackson’s passing and extend our heartfelt condolences to Mrs. Katherine Jackson and the family. Joe was a strong man who acknowledged his own imperfections and heroically delivered his sons and daughters from the steel mills of Gary, Indiana to worldwide pop superstardom," said John Branca and John McClain, co-executors of the family estate.

Jackson, who was the father of the late music legend Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson and the founder of the Jackson 5, was 89.

While no cause of death has been released, his passing comes just days after he was reportedly placed in hospice care for terminal cancer.

On Sunday, just days before his death, he posted a cryptic tweet.

"I have seen more sunsets than I have left to see," read the tweet posted from Jackson's official Twitter account. "The sun rises when the time comes and whether you like it or not the sun sets when the time comes."

Jackson was born in Fountain Hill, Arkansas on July 26, 1929 to a high school teacher father and a housewife mother.

He was the eldest of four children.

The couple split up when Jackson was 12, and he moved with his father to California while his mother moved to Indiana.

At 18, he relocated to Indiana, which is where he met and married his wife Katherine Scruse in 1949.

Together they had 11 children.

In the 1950s, he attempted to create his own music career as a guitarist, but soon shifted the focus to his children.

Jackson formed his band of family musicians the Jackson 5 in the '60s, featuring sons Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael.

They became one of the most successful R&B groups in history, with their father initially working as their manager.

In the 1970s, he convinced daughters LaToya, Rebbie and Janet to begin performing.

The success of the Jackson 5 helped foster Janet and Michael's decade-long careers as pop icons.

In 2009, Michael died of a painkiller overdose.

Jackson's relationship with his children, however, was controversial.

Michael had claimed that his father had been physically abusive before his death, something that Jackson clarified saying he had never "beat" him.

Joe Jackson is survived by his wife, children and more than two grandchildren.