Leak and Sons prepare for Jesse Jackson's funeral, playing a 'small part' in the history of an iconic leader

Spencer Leak Jr. was woken up by a text at around 1:30 a.m. on Feb 17. The vice president of Leak and Sons Funeral Home checked his phone — the civil rights activist and Chicago icon Rev. Jesse Jackson had died.

“I got up, put my suit and my shirt and tie on, and I headed to their home,” Leak said.

Jackson died at 84, after a lengthy battle with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare brain disease.

Leak and Sons have been tasked with planning and executing Jackson’s funeral services, including scouting service locations in South Carolina and Washington, D.C., and handling his remains.

But the death also hit close to home for the Leak family, who have been in the funeral business since 1933.

For decades, Leak said, his family and the Jacksons were “intertwined.” Their relationship dates back to Leak’s grandfather, Andrew.

Andrew Leak started the business with a $500 loan from his wife, Dottie, and $500 that he saved from working as a bathroom attendant at the Chicago World's Fair. He wanted Black Chicagoans to be able to bury their loved ones respectfully. The couple ran the business with their three sons, including the youngest Spencer Leak.

It moved to its current Greater Grand Crossing location, 7838 S. Cottage Grove Ave., in 1959. Two other locations, in Country Club Hills and Matteson, have opened since 2004.

Jackson moved with his family to Chicago in 1964 to attend seminary school. But they didn't have a place to live until Rev. Clay Evans introduced him to Andrew Leak.

“My grandfather said, ‘Well, instead of finding them a place to live, they can just come and live with [us],'” Leak Jr. said.

The Jacksons moved into the Leak family's three-flat in South Shore and stayed for years. It was the first place Jackson lived in Chicago.

Around that time, the funeral home had grown in prominence, holding services for many well-known Black Chicagoans. Soul singer Sam Cooke’s funeral in 1964 brought 200,000 mourners — a crowd size that damaged the funeral home's front doors, leaving broken glass. Other prominent burials include comedian Bernie Mac, rapper Juice WRLD and drug kingpin William Morris "Flukey" Stokes.

But the funeral home also became known as the place where no one would be turned away, no matter their financial status.

Meanwhile, Jackson went on to work with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., staying close to the civil rights leader until his assassination in 1968. Jackson would later start what became the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in the 1970s, ran for president in the 1980s and then a decade later, traveled the world to free hostages, advise leaders and join picket lines.

Andrew Leak — who became friends with King and provided limousine services to him when he was in town — was also an advocate of social justice. In 1964, he led a march with Spencer Leak and 10,000 people that led to the desegregation of Oak Woods Cemetery on the South Side.

The families stayed friends through it all, Leak Jr. said, who grew up playing basketball with Jackson’s sons. When Jesse Jackson Jr. first ran for Congress, Leak Jr. joined him on the campaign trail.

“The relationship just remained the same because of the funeral home and my grandfather and my father's work in the community and burying families for free and … supporting operation PUSH,” he said.

After Andrew Leak died in 1993, Spencer Leak, now 88, took over as president and owner and renamed the business to Leak and Sons.

Leak Jr. became vice president at 23. Now at 56, he considers him and his father a “dynamic duo.” Leak Jr.’s siblings, mother and cousin are also involved in the business.

“We are community-based, and we are known as the funeral home that will work with you. We don't turn anyone away, and we try to treat everyone the same,” he said.

Keeping it personal

In recent years, the business has faced lawsuits claiming it had lost or mixed up bodies. In 2024, a family said Leak and Sons dressed another corpse in their father’s clothing ahead of a viewing. In 2015, a family accused the business of losing their mother’s remains.

“There’s a lot moving parts [in this business], which is why we move slow,” Leak Jr. said. He declined to comment on the lawsuits.

In 2008, seven bodies were burned in an embalming room fire that Leak Jr. said was likely electrical. He said business picked up after the fire. He estimates they do more than 2,500 burials annually, and they have 106 part- and full-time employees.

“We like to say the setback was the setup for the comeback,” he said.

The business still goes through hard times, though.

“It's always a struggle when you're running a Black-owned business, especially a funeral business where your business is not steady,” Leak Jr. said. “Sometimes we'll be busy. Sometimes we'll be twiddling our thumbs, but the bills still have to be paid.”

He said what brings families back is the company's personal touch in every service. And he continues to answer calls from families while planning Jackson’s services, with the first starting Thursday at Rainbow PUSH Coalition, 930 E. 50th St.

“I would never want this family to think, 'Well, he's not returning my call because they're handling Rev. Jackson,'” he said.

On any given Saturday, the Leak family are dispersed at as many as 20 funerals across the Chicago area.

“If we miss them at the church, we greet them at the cemetery,” he said. “And if we miss them at the cemetery and they're having a repass, we go and sit with them at the repass.”

‘Just for him’

Leak Jr. remembers his last visit with Jackson was last year, when he was hosting a Sunday radio program.

“Rev Jackson walked right in, and then he spoke on the radio show," Leak Jr. said. "Everybody says that his body was shutting down but that mind was on fire.”

Jackson didn’t have any directives on how his services should be held — at least none the Leak family were aware of. Within hours of his death, Jackson Jr. and Leak Jr. brought Jackson’s body to Leak and Sons.

Jackson Jr. wanted some private time with his father’s body, and Leak Jr. offered the room where Sam Cooke’s visitation was held.

“Just like any other family that we serve, we want everything to be perfect,” he said. “Even with Rev. Jackson's iconic stature, it's not overwhelming. But I just want everything to go perfectly for him. … My main concern was to prepare him in a way that the family will be completely satisfied — that was my main concern. I don't care about our name being on a program. That's not me. You don't have to acknowledge us at the funeral.”

Leak Jr. has a road trip planned with Jackson on Saturday. He'll be driving the hearse to South Carolina, where Jackson is from, for services planned there.

“He’ll be the first person to ride in this hearse,” Leak Jr. said. “I got it just for him.”

He wanted to take on the responsibility.

“I'm witnessing history here,” he said. “I'm playing a very small part in the history of a very large man, and it's just an honor to be doing this. And it was also like this when he was alive. It was just always an honor to be in his presence.”