Our View

Our View

John Jackson

Friend to many

Rappahannock County lost a native son on Sunday

evening, Jan. 20, Guitarist and Singer John

Jackson. Word spread quickly around Rappahannock on Monday and expressions of sympathy were overwhelming in his honor and memory.

John Jackson was an ordinary individual, one who always remembered his love for Rappahannock and yet was famous both nationally and internationally.

John Jackson was bom in 1924 in Rappahannock County. His father was a tenant farmer on what had been an old plantation prior to the Civil War.

There, Mr. Jackson and his thirteen brothers and sisters grew up helping with farming, cutting timber, herding cows, and setting their hands to the numerous tasks that needed to be done to support a family of this size. John Jackson stayed on the farm untit he was twentyfive years old and had a wife and young family of his own when he moved to Fairfax to work yet another farm and supplementing his income by chopping and hauling firewood, and digging graves.

In 1962 Mr. Jackson was "discovered" by folklorist Charles Perdue at an Amoco station in Fairfax, where he was sitting strumming his guitar. From there, the sky was the limit for John Jackson. John Jackson would often return to Rappahannock County for family affairs, Sperryville festival days, weddings and other occasions. ; ■ In September 1986 John Jackson was one of thirteen recipients of the National Heritage Fellowships awarded h{F the National Endowment for the Arts. This was only ofce of the many awards John Jackson received over the 'yiars as his work enriched the lives of people from every vfelk of life. He was a true inspiration to all. We will 2*iss him. • ■ John Jackson will long be remembered within the ijfarts and minds of Rappahannock residents. Tb his Jcfcar family, we express our sympathies. * m