Update: Visitation for Carlton Jackson will be from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14th at J.C. Kirby's on Lovers Lane. His funeral is Saturday, Feb. 15th at 2 p.m. at Christ Episcopal Church.
Longtime WKU history professor and noted author Carlton Jackson has died at age 81.
“Carlton was a passionate historian and a very clever scholar who had a knack for finding an unusual, intriguing story and telling it in a way that really caught folks’ interest," said David Lee, Dean of Potter College of Arts & Letters. "He was a master combination scholar-storyteller and a remarkable historian.”
Jackson authored several books including “Hattie: The Life of Hattie McDaniel”, the biography of the actress who won an Academy Award for her role of Mammy in "Gone With The Wind". He also wrote “P.S. I Love You: The Story of the Singing Hilltoppers”, chronicling the four Western Kentucky students who rose to national stardom as a singing group in the 1950s .
“Carlton is kind of a WKU legend,” said Lee. “Universities are extensions of the personalities who comprise them and Carlton was a distinctive, legendary figure who’s left a tremendous legacy to this university.”
Jackson was featured as a part of WKU's "View from the Hill" program in 2011.
Jackson was one of the first two faculty members to be named a University Distinguished Professor. Born in Blount County, Alabama, he came to Western Kentucky in 1961.