Janet Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana, daughter of Katherine Esther (née Scruse) and Joseph Walter Jackson. She is the youngest of nine children. The family was of lower-middle-class and devout Jehovah’s Witnesses. By the time she was a toddler, Janet’s older brothers: Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Michael had already begun to perform on stage at nightclubs and theaters as the Jackson 5. In March 1969, the group signed with Motown Records, and by the end of the year the group recorded the first of their four consecutive number-one singles. The Jackson 5’s success allowed the entire family to move to the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles, California in 1971. The Jacksons settled in a gated mansion that they referred to as “Hayvenhurst.”
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