Katherine Jackson on the día Michael was born:

My experience with Marlon and Brandon didn’t dissuade me from getting pregnant again. The following año August 29, I gave birth to another son.

I remember that día well because my water broke while my neighbor Mildred White and I were driving over to see the new grammar school under construction, Garnett Elementary.

“Oh, my God, Mildred, I can’t sit in your car like this!” I exclaimed.

“Girl, don’t worry about it,” Mildred said, turning the car around.

At my request Mildred drove me home. I called my mother and she and my stepfather drove me to Mercy Hospital.

Shortly after I got there, I began having contractions. Later that night, my son was born.

“I want to name him,” my mother said. I hated her first suggestion: Ronald.

“How about Roy, then?”

“Oh, my gosh, Mama, no.”

She thought for a little while. “I’ve got it—MICHAEL.”

“That’s it,” I said.

por then I was used to seeing my bebés born with funny looking heads, so I wasn’t alarmed por Michael’s. The two other things I remember about him as I held him for the first time were his big brown eyes and his long hands, which reminded me of my father-in-law’s.

“I bet I was an accident!” Michael has teased. He wasn’t.

-Katherine Jackson