EXCLUSIVE

10:30 AM PT -- Family sources tell TMZ, Joe died at a hospice in Las Vegas. The hospice is connected to a hospital where Joe was admitted. We're told he was moved to the hospice a day and a half ago.

Joe Jackson ﻿-- the patriarch of the Jackson family -- has died ... TMZ has learned.

Family sources tell TMZ, Joe passed away at 3:30 AM Wednesday.

We broke the story ... Joe was hospitalized in June with terminal cancer. His family had been flocking to his bedside since. His wife, Katherine, had been at his bedside as were some of Joe's children and grandchildren.

Joe had been battling health problems for some time now. He was hospitalized back in 2016 after coming down with a high fever. But, he bounced back not long after and was seen partying in Vegas. His health was also fragile after a stroke and 3 heart attacks back in 2015. Doctors implanted a pacemaker.

Joe may have been the most successful parent managing his children in the history of music. He, with a little help from Diana Ross, engineered the careers of The Jackson 5, and then Michael and Janet Jackson as solo artists.

The elder Jackson took a lot of heat from Michael and his siblings for abusing parenting and management practices, including physical brutality. Joe copped to it but, far from apologizing ... he said his methods made his kids successful and kept them out of jail.

Michael's dad stood by him during his molestation trial. After Michael's death, Joe was criticized for trying to make money off his son's memory.

A rep for Michael's estate tells us, "We are deeply saddened by Mr. Jackson’s passing and extend our heartfelt condolences to Mrs. Katherine Jackson and the family. Joe was a strong man who acknowledged his own imperfections and heroically delivered his sons and daughters from the steel mills of Gary, Indiana to worldwide pop superstardom."

Joe had 10 kids with Katherine, his wife of more than 60 years. The 2 did not live together and had a strained relationship for the last years of his life, but they frequently interacted.