Billy Morrow Jackson, painter, muralist, printmaker, and educator, was born in Kansas City, Missouri on 23 February 1926. As a child he attended Saturday art classes at the Nelson Art Gallery. Jackson was following his dream of being an artist while studying nights at Washington University. His dreams were put on hold when the U.S. entered into World War II and he enlisted in the Marines. After he was honorably discharged, he returned to Washington University where he studied with Max Beckman, Philip Guston and Paul Burlin. Jackson received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1949.

Jackson married in 1949 and then went on an extended trip to Mexico. In 1952, he moved to Champaign, Illinois so he could begin graduate studies at the University of Illinois. Jackson studied painting but also worked in lithography and intaglio. His first solo exhibition was in 1952 and he earned his M.F.A. in 1954.

After securing his M.F.A., Jackson was hired by the University of Illinois and his teaching career there spanned thirty years. He retired in 1987 and turned to painting full time.

Jackson was a member of the Society of American Graphic Artists, the Boston Printmakers, and the Philadelphia Water Color Society. He completed two commissions for NASA, one in 1967 and the second in 1981. Retrospective exhibitions of his work were mounted at the Sheldon Swope Art Museum, the Wichita Art Museum, and the Krannert Art Museum.

Jackson's work is represented in the collections of the Boston Public Library, Massachusetts; the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; the National Gallery of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; and the Wichita Art Museum, Kansas.

Billy Morrow Jackson died on 16 June 2006 in Champaign, Illinois.