Major Jackson was born in 1917 to a large, religious family. As a child, his father was a Baptist minister. He grew up in the Ozarks of Arkansas and attended high school in Fort Smith, Arkansas. He joined the Marine Corps during World War II and served as a radio operator
In January 1946 he married his wife, Margaret, and settled in San Diego, California. After raising their three children, Major and Margaret retired to their farm in Riverside County, California where they remained for nearly twenty years. In 1963 Major began working as an oil field hand on his uncle's ranch until he was drafted into the Army.
He spent three years as a paratrooper and received the Bronze Star with V device and Combat Infantryman's Badge for service in Vietnam. After his honorable discharge, he returned to the ranch until his retirement in 1982 and began working as a tractor mechanic at a local shop. He passed away at age ninety-two on October 10, 2011 at the Veterans Administration Hospital in West Los Angeles after suffering from Alzheimer's disease for many years.
.. . poetry, like all imaginative creations, divines the human enterprise. This is poetry's social value.Major Jackson
It's too bad war makes peopledisappear like chess pieces, and that prisonsturn prisoners into movie endings.Major Jackson
