Mary & Jerry Jackson at the Mayflower Hotel for the inauguration, originally uploaded by keithsjackson.
Jerry told Gma, "Dan and I have an unusual relationship. I'll do anything he asks of me and he'll do the same for me." As Jerry tells the story about himself, he was a drunk, an hourly wage earner at Champion Paper in Pasadena ,Texas, and loaded with debts. An attack of appendicitis put him in the hospital, making his personal situation much worse. At the time he was dating Mary, a widow with two teenage children. She never left his bedside, never gave up on him. He dried up and never drank again. He began the climb up the executive ladder at Champion. At the same time he was a close friend of LBJ .
He was referred to me for his annual exams at which time he was able to tell me his personal problems and enlist my help. His number one problem was his mother whom he called every day. I became her physician which helped some of her anxiety. Once he called me from the airport where he was scheduled to leave for Argentina. His mother had called him in great distress--could I help? I called his mother's houseman who said he would look into the matter. All fixed.
Jerry made it possible for us to attend the LBJ inauguration in great style. We visited him and Mary in Alaska and stayed with them in their house for a week while they showed us the sights. When he had some dental work done while on a trip to Tokyo, he wouldn't take the antibiotic the dentist prescribed until he phoned me for my OK.
He had no more than a 12th grade education but at the peak of his success he was a vice president in charge of purchasing, a powerful position in an international corporation. He had a native intelligence that carried him far; as he boasted, "MBAs? I hire and fire 'em."
He was all-Texan. And he was a true blue friend.
