Jackson’s hometown remembers icon

GARY – A note, written in black permanent marker, graced a cardboard sign set on an easel in front of Michael Jackson’s childhood home in Gary.

“To the ‘King of Pop’ and The Legend: I love you. I grew up loving you. I will always love you.”

Fans approached the easel all day Friday, stopping to collect their thoughts and write notes and prayers for Michael Jackson, who died Thursday.

The worldwide superstar grew up in this tiny, nondescript house tucked away on a Gary side street.

Even though Jackson left the city behind and rarely returned, many residents still feel they’ve lost Gary’s son.

2300 Jackson Street
Lifetime Gary residents and fans from across the tri-state area gathered Thursday night and Friday at the house, which is still owned by the Jackson family. News media crews stayed into the early morning hours Friday to document the hundreds of fans celebrating Jackson’s life.

Around 8 a.m. Friday, about 40 people had already gathered on Jackson Street (named after the U.S. president, not its most famous resident). They stood behind an army of TV cameras and news crews, and everyone was looking at the empty home where as many as 11 Jackson family members once lived.

The stream of visitors to the two-bedroom home’s front door remained constant throughout the day. Stuffed animals, personal notes, candles and even money overflowed on the front steps.

Gary Mayor Rudy Clay arrived midmorning to mingle with media and fans alike in the front yard. He met Jackson in June 2003 during Jackson’s first trip to his hometown since a 1971 Jackson 5 concert at West Side High School across town.

“He had what you’d call a magnetic harmony to him,” Clay said Friday. “When you say ‘Michael Jackson,’ you might as well say ‘love.’”

When asked if he thought Jackson died a happy man, Clay responded, “This is not the end of the sentence for Michael Jackson. He’s in heaven, entertaining the angels now.”
By midafternoon, more than 100 people had leaked into the streets surrounding the house. A Lake County Sheriff’s Department helicopter whirred overhead, while Jackson’s music continued to play for the crowd.

People brandished Jackson memorabilia, from records to signed perfume bottles, as they walked up to the house for a quick photo next to the growing memorial.

“People will always come back to this house and see we had a megastar from Gary,” said Darryl Durham, a Merillville, Ind., resident who grew up in Gary. “It’s a total loss for Gary.”

Durham said he took “$2 and a prayer” to the front door.

‘Little Mikey’
The generation that grew up with “Little Mikey,” as Jackson was affectionately known, is searching for words to describe the new world without the “King of Pop.”

“I can’t eat. I can’t sleep,” said Chicago resident Antonio Wilson, dressed in full Jackson stage garb. “All I can do is dance, keep dancing.”

Wilson elevated the mood of the somber crowd midmorning Friday when he began dancing in signature Jackson point-kicks and moonwalks. One man brought a large boom box to the curb, and soon the entire block was filled with The Jackson 5 megahits “ABC” and “I Want You Back” and iconic Jackson singles “Thriller” and “Billie Jean.”

“All of his music was for the people,” Wilson said. “His shows were about everybody being together. He wasn’t just an American idol, he was the world’s idol.”

Gary resident Ernie Shelby said before she became the musician known as “Lady Sax,” she competed against Michael and the rest of the Jackson family in talent shows.

She said Jackson, who was only 8 years old at the time, was a “rambunctious” kid who once accidentally stepped on her foot backstage during a talent show.

“The worst part about competing against them was you knew they were always going to win,” Shelby said. “He was so young and he always had perfect pitch.”
To Shelby, Jackson represents the Gary of the past, when music was a central part of the culture.

“Gary often gets a bad rap,” Shelby said. “But back in the day it was just as big as Detroit was for Motown.”

Orlando Lumpke, who has lived in Gary all of his life, also remembers Jackson from watching him, along with many other musicians, at talent shows.

“He was good,” Lumpke said. “A lot of talent came through those high schools then. It shows Gary is more than just a ghetto.”

‘Goin’ Back to Indiana’
During his last visit to Gary in 2003, Jackson pledged his financial support for the construction of a performing arts center named after him, but the city has not announced any plans since.

On a visit to film a reality TV show last summer, Jackson’s father Joe Jackson vocalized his support for a Jackson family museum next to Interstate 80/94, about a mile southwest of the famous family home. No further plans have been released.

“What they did with Graceland for Elvis, that’s what we’re gonna do here in Gary,” Mayor Clay said, standing near the home’s front steps. “This will be a national landmark forever.”

Until then, Gary residents like Willie Eastland, who said he grew up with the Jacksons and used to sit in a playpen with Janet Jackson as a baby, keep remembering the days when Michael Jackson was just another neighborhood kid.

“I’m just devastated,” Eastland said. “My heart goes out to his family. They were like a regular family to me.”