(CNN) -- Michael Jackson's upbringing was shaped by two very different parents.



An image of Michael Jackson and his parents was on the big screen during his funeral in Los Angeles.



His mother, Katherine Jackson, has been portrayed by her children as the loving glue that bonded the family together, while her husband, Joe, was the harsh disciplinarian whose iron hand not only shaped one of the most successful musical families in the world, but also elicited enough fear in his superstar son that it sometimes made him ill.



Now the couple of 60 years stands at the center of a custody drama surrounding their grandchildren.



Michael Jackson's will, filed in 2002, designated his mother as caregiver for Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and "Blanket," 7.



It is the latest installment in the many trials that have tested the Jackson family, not least of which has been the unexpected loss of its most famous member.



"[Katherine's] taking it real hard," Joe Jackson told ABC News about his wife's coping with their son's death. "When you start talking about Michael, she starts crying."



By many accounts, Katherine Jackson, 79, shared a special bond with her second-youngest son.



In a 1993 interview with talk show host Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jackson spoke glowingly of the matriarch.



"My mother's wonderful," he said. "To me, she's perfection."



According to a biography posted by A&E Networks, Katherine Jackson was born Kattie B. Screws in 1930 in Barbour County, Alabama.



Her family reportedly relocated to East Chicago, Indiana, when she was 4, and her name was changed to Katherine Esther Scruse. A childhood bout with polio left her with a permanent limp.



She was a teenager when she met Joe Jackson, an aspiring musician and a boxer whose first marriage dissolved. Katherine said it was love at first sight.



"I just had a feeling that he was going to be my husband," Katherine Jackson said in an interview shot last year by Xonger Global Entertainment Networks for a planned reality show about the family. The video was obtained by ABC News. "The first time I saw him, I fell in love with him."



Together, they raised 10 children in a modest Gary, Indiana, home, while Joe worked as a crane operator, according to the A&E biography.



A devout Jehovah's Witness, Katherine nurtured the children's love of music by singing with them, made her sons' costumes as their father booked local gigs, and served as the family's backbone.



"As best as I could tell from both talking to [Michael] and my observations of the family throughout the years, Katherine was the one that had really unconditional love for Michael and was always there, was always supportive and was always comforting," said journalist and CNN contributor Bryan Monroe, who conducted the last major interview with Michael Jackson. "It was the epitome of a mother's love."



Joe Jackson's relationship with his famous son was a bit more complicated.



Monroe said the hard taskmaster -- who Michael said sometimes held a belt in his hand as he and his brothers rehearsed -- evoked mixed emotions from the singer.



"In my interview with him, [Michael] spoke almost in the same breath of the fear he had of Joseph's sternness ... and at the same time the respect he had for Joseph's work ethics and his teachings," Monroe said. "He said [Joseph] taught him and his brothers an awful lot about discipline and performance."



According to the biography posted by A&E Networks, Joe Jackson was born in Arkansas in 1929 and pursued fame early on, first as a Golden Gloves contender and later as a member of The Falcons, a band he started in the mid-1950s.



When he noticed musical talent in his brood, he formed the Jackson Brothers with his three oldest sons and served as their manager.



The group later became The Jackson 5, with young Michael serving as lead singer
Who is seeking custody of Michael Jackson's children? Who is viewed as the backbone of the family?
His mother, Katherine Katherine Jackson,
question: Who is seeking custody of Michael Jackson's children?, answer: His mother, Katherine | question: Who is viewed as the backbone of the family?, answer: Katherine Jackson,