Jackson Returns to Limelight

By Stephen M. Silverman

10/02/1997 at 12:00 AM EDT

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said on S aturday that he would return to public life this week, reversing his earlier announcement that he was leaving the limelight in order to reconcile with his family, particularly his wife of 38 years, Jackie, after he had admitted to fathering a love child. "The ground is no place for a champion," Jackson told the Associated Press. Meanwhile, The new York Times reported over the weekend that Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition had given a $35,000 "severance package" to the woman with whom Jackson had the child. The baby is now a 20-month-old daughter. Her mother was identified by The Times as Karin L. Stanford, the former director of the coalition's Washington bureau.