Services on Tuesday for Bobby Jackson, 91, who uplifted Montgomery with music

Montgomery native Bobby Jackson inspired several local generations in jazz music, to be sure. But perhaps the bigger legacy was in his work to uplift and unify the people of the city he loved. 

“Montgomery is the birthplace of the Confederacy and the Civil Rights Movement, and people are still hassling about both of them,” Jackson told the Advertiser in 1981. At the time, he was 51 and his longtime dream of a World Heritage Museum in Montgomery was just coming into existence. “My mission is to help build unity between all people.”

Jackson died on April 2 at age 91, surrounded by his family. 

Graveside services will be held on Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Greenwood Cemetery. Pastor Calvin McTier will be officiating, and Phillips-Riley Funeral Home is directing. 

Jackson’s early life was forged in a poverty-stricken community called Sheraton’s Alley. According to interviews with him, he didn’t meet his parents until he was grown, and was raised by the late Nellie Turner.  Jackson recalled cold days when he had to pick up coal scattered along train tracks just to keep warm in the winter.

“For a child to grow up in Sheraton’s Alley, a tough slum in west Montgomery, and become such credit to the Black community is truly amazing,” said the Rev. Edward Martin of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in 1981. 

“I wouldn’t swap my life now for anything else I can think of,” Jackson told the Advertiser in 1976. 

According to Advertiser reports from 1965, Jackson attended Loveless School in Montgomery. He had to drop out of school early, and would later attend night school to earn his high school degree. 

Before forming his own band, Jackson worked as a caddy and kitchen worker at the Beauvoir Country Club. His band would go on to perform at clubs across Montgomery and beyond, including the weekly Hootenanny show at the Elk’s Club. 

"Bobby had a pure affection for his music and always presented it in a way that that passionate purely from his heart and soul," said Montgomery musician Coleman Woodson Jr. "He also had a passion for his people and was always striving to uplift his fellow man."

One person in particular who benefited from Jackson’s kindness and music is longtime Montgomery bluesman Stanford Barnes, who said he will speak at Jackson’s service Tuesday. When Barnes was just 19 in 1961, Jackson visited his school in Brantley and led him into a new life.

“That’s when he brought me to Montgomery,” Barnes said. He would replace Clarence Carter as Jackson’s guitar player in The Sneakers. Jackson even let Barnes stay with him at his house. 

“He was a nice clean-cut guy with a fatherly image,” Barnes said. 

Jackson cared about working with youths. In the 1960s he organized a club for teenagers and the Operation Santa Claus program. He would later introduce Jazz Unlimited to Montgomery, a music program for youths and adults. 

 He recorded songs in the late '50s to early 60s. He made his first record in New York, and reportedly had offers from large labels like RCA Victor and Atlantic. “But I didn’t want to leave Montgomery and my work,” Jackson told the Advertiser in 1976. 

Jackson also had a TV program and a radio program Sunday mornings on WXVI.

Along with Barnes, Jackson’s band included musicians like W.L. Jackson, David Scott, Calvin Scott, Wilburn Jackson, Arthur Franklin, Cleve Carter, Mark Williams, William Powell and others. 

In 1966, Jackson was honored for “outstanding and meritorious service in the field of music and social recreation in the community and state at large.”

Jackson had a wife, children and extended family. The people he also viewed as family extended out into the community at large as well. 

“Bobby started calling me son, and I started calling him Pa after I told him that he reminded me of my father because he never seemed to meet a stranger and was always smiling and friendly,” said longtime friend and fellow musician Ted Mann, who described Jackson as always smiling and always friendly. “He truly was a legend and a treasure in Montgomery and Alabama.”

Jackson was also a regular guest at the late Henry Pugh’s downtown music club La Salle Bleu, where Mann frequently met up with him. 

 In 1981, at age 51, Jackson was presented with an award for his “untiring concern for humanity” from Bethany Seventh-day Adventist Church. 

That same year, Jackson began plans for his World Heritage Museum at 119 W. Jeff Davis Ave. in an 1830s ante-bellum home.

“I loved that man and always enjoyed playing with him and for him whether at the church, at his World Heritage Museum, at his birthday party or at Embassy Suites,” Mann said. “Bobby was one of my heroes.”

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel at sheupel@gannett.com.