Long before the sold-out stadiums, Alan Jackson wrote a song called “Home” about the little house in Newnan, Georgia, where he grew up. It told how his parents made a home out of his grandfather’s old toolshed. What the song could not tell was how the story would end: his mother, Ruth, lived in that same house for 70 years, through all of her son’s fame, and never wanted to live anywhere else.
A Shed Rolled In on Two Logs
Ruth Musick was just 16 when she married Joseph Eugene Jackson in 1946. Eugene had come home from the Navy, and the young couple had almost nothing. They settled on land near his father’s place, starting with a small wooden toolshed. In “Home,” Alan describes his granddaddy rolling that shed into place on two logs, and his parents building walls around it, room by room, until it became a real house.
It was not much to start with. The original shed had no running water. Over the years the family kept adding on, and it was in that growing house that Ruth and Eugene raised five children: Diane, twins Cathy and Carol, Connie, and finally, in 1958, a boy named Alan.
A Hallway for a Bedroom
By the time the youngest arrived, there was simply no room left for him. Alan slept in the hallway until he was about 10, when one of his older sisters moved out and a bedroom finally opened up. He has said he never felt poor growing up, because of the close community around them.
His father drove about 40 miles up I-85 to work as a mechanic at the Ford plant outside Atlanta. Alan later remembered those drives, in passing, in “Drive (For Daddy Gene).” Ruth ran the household, sang to her children, and took on work when money was tight, including managing the cafeterias at the local Playtex plant and at Elm Street School, where she became known for her cinnamon rolls. Most of the music in that house was gospel.
The Song He Calls His Favorite
When Alan recorded his debut album, Here in the Real World, he put the house on it. “Home” walks through his parents’ early years: marrying young with no money, believing a vow was meant to last, his mother finding her strength in faith and family, his father skinning his knuckles on other people’s cars. It is the one Alan Jackson has named as his favorite of all the songs he ever wrote.
He was clear about who it was really for. “I basically wrote the song ‘Home’ about her,” he told Country Weekly in 2012.
Fame Came, and She Stayed
Within a few years, Alan Jackson was one of the biggest stars in country music, and he and his wife, Denise, eventually built a sprawling estate outside Nashville. Back in Newnan, Ruth did not move an inch. In that same 2012 interview, Alan explained that the house near his grandfather’s land was all his mother had ever known. She was feeble by then and had care at home, but she wanted it that way.
“She never wanted to leave, and we hope that she can stay there.”
Alan once described his mother as stubborn and outspoken, the kind of woman who would stand her ground when she felt strongly about something. On this, she never budged. Eugene died in January 2000, and Ruth stayed on in the house for 17 more years.
The family brought its traditions to her. At Christmas in 2013, when getting in and out of cars had become hard for her, Alan had food from the Varsity delivered so the whole family could stay at Mama’s house for Christmas Eve instead of moving from home to home as they usually did.
Fans who drove through Newnan hoping to see where Alan Jackson grew up often found Ruth herself. She would invite them to take a picture on the front porch, or offer them a glass of iced tea.
The Last Morning in Newnan
Ruth Musick Jackson died peacefully at her home on Saturday morning, January 7, 2017. She was 86. She left behind five children, 12 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
She had already shaped more of her son’s music than most fans knew. His gospel album Precious Memories began as a private Mother’s Day gift for her, never meant for release, until his label heard it. For her funeral, Alan wrote “Where Her Heart Has Always Been,” and when he finally released it in 2021, he included an old recording of Mama Ruth reading from the Bible.
The house that started as a toolshed was the only home she ever wanted. Her son made sure the world heard about it.