Quiet Roots, Loud Legacy: Prince Albert Screws and the Family That Became Pop Royalty

Basic Information

Family Origins, the Migration Arc, and a Kitchen-Table Origin Story

I like to imagine lives as films: low, wide shots of a dust road, close-ups of a hand planting seed — that’s where Prince Albert Screws’s story opens. Born October 16, 1907, in rural Jernigan, Russell County, Alabama, he arrived into a world of small holdings, seasonal work, and the rhythms of the American South. His parents, Prince Screws and Julia Belle Jordan, anchored a household in that landscape, and those family roots would—decades later—feed a cultural tree that reaches global heights.

There’s something cinematic about the migration arc here: from fields and rail lines in the South to the cities of the North, a trajectory millions of families took in the 20th century. Marriage followed for Prince Albert on May 28, 1929, to Martha “Mattie” Upshaw; their daughter Katherine (Kattie B.) was born May 4, 1930 — and that single birth becomes the hinge that moves this story from local to international. I like to tell you this as if you’re beside me at the kitchen table: you lean in, cup of coffee cooling, and realize how a single family line can go from farmland to footlights.

The Lineage that Met the Spotlight

If I were casting this as a movie, Katherine would be the scene-stealer: the daughter who becomes matriarch, who will raise a brood that changes music and culture. Through Katherine’s marriage and family, Prince Albert Screws is grandfather to a constellation of performers—Rebbie, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, La Toya, Marlon, Michael, Randy, Janet, and more—names that read like track listings on an era-defining album. That generational jump—grandfather to global stars—feels almost mythic, except it’s grounded in ordinary facts: births, migrations, marriages, and small acts of endurance.

And the branches keep growing: great-grandchildren like Valencia Jackson continue the line into the 21st century. When you think about legacy, you picture a family photo album where sepia meets color—each page a different era, but all connected by a single surname that the user requested I preserve exactly: Screws.

Work, Numbers, and the Quiet Economics of a Life

There’s no headline number for Prince Albert Screws’s finances. He lived before the internet made every ledger public; his recorded occupations—cotton farming and railroad-related work—place him solidly in a working-class economy. That tells us what money looked like in his world: steady labor, seasonal peaks and troughs, migration for better opportunity, and wealth measured in family and land more than in bank ledgers.

Dates to anchor the arc:

• 1907 — Born: October 16.
• 1929 — Married: May 28.
• 1930 — Daughter Katherine born: May 4.
• 1997 — Died: January 21.

Think of those as the stampings on a passport of a life—simple, quiet, meaningful.

Public Echoes, Stories, and the Digital Footprint

Here’s the curious thing about people who live mostly outside the glare: they leave a quiet trail. Prince Albert Screws isn’t a tabloid figure; he’s an ancestor whose name surfaces in family trees, memorial pages, and the recollections of descendants. In the age of social media, a photo or a remembered anecdote can make him pop up in feeds—soft mentions, family tributes, birthday remembrances. The narrative energy around him spikes not from scandal or headlines, but from memory—grandchildren and great-grandchildren telling stories, passing down recipes, naming traditions, and photographs that stitch the past into the present.

And it’s cinematic again: fleeting shots of a family picnic, a hand on an old photograph, a name whispered during a family anniversary—these are the clips that circulate online and keep a personal legacy alive. The Screws name also appears in variant spellings across records, a not-uncommon bureaucratic remix that genealogists often encounter; it’s a reminder that paperwork sometimes mismatches flesh-and-blood heritage.

Timeline: Key Dates at a Glance

Numbers feel dry in isolation, but lined up like this they become beats in a life’s soundtrack—beats that lead to a chorus sung by an entire family.

How the Small-Town Past Became Pop Culture Present

Here’s the part I enjoy telling the most: the contrast. Picture a black-and-white photograph of a farm split by a dirt road, then cut to a color video of a packed arena with a spotlight and a crowd singing along. Those two images belong to the same lineage. That tension—between the humble origins of a man born in 1907 and the dizzying fame of his descendants—is the human tension that makes family stories good cinema.

I say this because I’ve watched family narratives do what great scripts do: they fold time, carry motifs, repeat lines in new voices. The Screws line folds into the Jackson phenomenon, and the result is a human story that spans cotton fields and stage lights—a lineage that reads like an American epic told in home movies and chart-topping singles.

FAQ

Who was Prince Albert Screws?

Prince Albert Screws was born October 16, 1907 in Jernigan, Alabama, and is recorded as the father of Katherine (Kattie B.) Screws, connecting him to the Jackson family line.

Who are his immediate family members?

His parents were Prince Screws and Julia Belle Jordan; he married Martha “Mattie” Upshaw and they had daughter Katherine (born May 4, 1930).

Is Rebbie Jackson his grandchild?

Yes—Rebbie Jackson is one of the grandchildren descending from Katherine, making her a grandchild of Prince Albert Screws.

Is Valencia Jackson his great-grandchild?

Yes—Valencia Jackson is identified among the great-grandchildren of Prince Albert Screws.

What did Prince Albert Screws do for work?

Records associate him with cotton farming and railroad-related labor, common occupations for his place and era.

Is there public information about his net worth?

No public or reliable net-worth estimate for Prince Albert Screws is documented; his life is recorded in working-class terms rather than public financial portfolios.

Are there photos or memorials available?

Yes—family memorials and photographs circulate in family archives and memorial pages, kept alive by descendants and family historians.