LEAK & SONS FUNERAL HOMES CELEBRATE 80-YEARS IN BUSINESS
Coming from a family of civil rights activists inbusiness for 80-years, Spencer Leak, Sr., president of the Leak & SonsFuneral Homes is being honored Saturday by the ETA Creative Arts Foundation,Inc. along with ironic businessman Ed Gardner, businesswoman Dee Robinson Reid,rapper Lupe Fiasco and WVON.
The honoring of Leak and other heroes will be heldSaturday, September 7, 2013, at ETA Square, 7558 So. South Chicago Avenue from7 p.m. to 12 midnight.
Leak, who is also a trustee at the Chicago StateUniversity, will celebrate his 80th year in business in Octoberhaving been located in the Chatham community for the past 54-years. It is thebusiness his parents, Rev. Andrew R. Leak and wife, Dottie L. Leak, began in1933 during the depression and the year of the World’s Fair in Chicago wherehis father worked as a bathroom attendant.
With a made up mind, Leak’s parents opened thefuneral home at 41st and Michigan in 1933 after saving up $500 and amatching amount received as an inheritance after the death of Mrs. Leak’sfather.
They then moved to 4504 So. State Street where Rev.Leak remained until September of 1959 until the city declared imminent domainpoised to build the Robert Taylor Homes, which have now been razed.
The Leak’s moved to its current Chatham site, 7838So. Cottage Grove, where they have been for 52 of the 80 years of the funeralhomes’ existence. In 1959, Chatham was in racial transition and whites quicklyexisted.
“Wehappened to have come into this area when blacks were migrating from theBronzeville area into Englewood, Chatham and into Woodlawn,” recalled Leak.“When we moved in, it was half-white, half-black but it quickly evolved into anall black community five-years after our arrival.”
Therewas a white-owned restaurant across the street from Leak’s Funeral Home and theowner refused to allow blacks to enter his eatery; that is all except Mr.Leak’s father who befriended the owner, ate in his restaurant and talked to himabout integration. However, the owner still refused to allow blacks into hisbusiness and during the mid 1960’s his restaurant mysteriously caught on fireand was destroyed.
Determined to continue their “thriving” businessesat their new Cottage Grove site, the Leak’s held an open house in 1959.Pastors, gospel singers and business owners came. The Leak’s thought that was agood sign success would soon follow. His hopes were dashed because for the next45-days, they did not received a single call.
Fearing they may have moved too far from theirbusiness base, the Leaks began to think they may had made a grave error incoming to Chatham, but one day a single mother walked in. Her 10-year-old daughterhad died and she had no insurance. Rev. Leak told her, “You may not realizethis but you are the first person to come to this funeral home seeking ourservices.” As an award, he gave her a funeral “fit for a princess,” recalled Mr.Leak. “We gave her the best casket, best service all at no cost.
“Aftermy father made that decision, the telephones began to ring off the hook fromfamilies seeking our services and our business began at that moment to be avibrant business that continues to this day…and all based upon my father makingthat decision we think was directed by God to give that lady who had noresources a funeral….”
Therewas racism even at the Oakwood Cemetery. When a mother came to the Leak’s andrevealed that the then all-white Cemetery refused to bury her daughter, Rev.Leak, the NAACP and Rev. Clay Evans organized a march and today it isintegrated and is where the late Mayor Harold Washington and other notableslike Jesse Owens are buried.
Rev.Leak also provided limousine service to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when hecame to Chicago. Mr. Leak was the chauffeur and says he is honored to havedriven Dr. King around the city.
“My dad and Edwin were good friends alongwith Al Raby and a group of ministers extended an invitation to Dr. King tocome to Chicago. That was the beginning of the Northern trek via Chicago by Dr.King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) which was a neworganization Dr. King had established.”
TheLeak’s were always civil rights-minded and ran their funeral home like a familybusiness with Mr. Leak sleeping on the premises after he graduated from highschool and went on to Wilson Junior College. He stayed there because he was needed,as am ambulance driver. Leak stayed in a one-room area at the funeral homeuntil 1960 when he went into the Army. He was discharged in 1962 and went backhome to live with his parents but sometimes still staying at the funeral home.
In1993, his father died at the age of 87. Rev. Leak was still working at thefuneral home when he passed. That is when Mr. Leak took over the reigns of thefamily-owned business and began to groom his son, Spencer Leak, Jr. to carry onhis family’s business for the third generation.
Not only did Leak take over his father’s businessincluding once saving it from foreclosure, but he also adopted his dad’s givingspirit. Leak will not turn away anyone who doesn’t have funds to bury theirloved ones especially victims of violence.
And, that included helping to bury most of the 21people who were trampled to death during the 2003 E2 Nightclub tragedy at 24thand Michigan where about 50 were injured after security guards sprayed pepperspray to break up a fight. “We will allowed them to have a funeral,” Leak saidexplaining he offered them a payment plan or no costs based on their financialstatus. It is a formula he still adheres to.
Today, Mr. Leak continues to give back to thecommunity including to black churches which he has donated funds to help themremain open at the expense of nearly losing his own funeral home which once wasgoing into foreclosure.
Like his father, the funeral home is virtually afamily affair with his wife, Henrietta, whom he married 44-years ago, being thevice president of Public Relations. His son, Spencer Leak, Jr. is the VicePresident and heir apparent. His son Stephen is vice president of administrationand personnel, another son, Stacey Robert Leak, is an executive assistant to TVJudge Greg Mathis, and he has several nephews in the business as well.
When asked about the violence in Chicago andhow has that impacted his business, Leak said he has buried more than 100 ofthe 502 homicide victims last year. “To put those children in caskets in the prime of their lifeis tragic set of circumstances….” He said, “Our problem is not Jim Crow butJimmy Crow of the black man.” He called for peace in the community and said if Dr. King were alive, he would beheartbroken.
In the spirit of his father, Mr. Leak has expandedhis services to include a repast room where mourners can eat and socialize asthey mourn the deaths of their loved ones. He has also opened a second funeralhome, at 18400 South Pulaski Rd., Country Club Hills, Illinois.
And for more than 40-years, Mr. Leak has a gospelradio show each Sunday 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on 1390 AM broadcast live from his Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr. Chapel where he keeps the community informed on manysocial issues.
In celebrating his 80th year inbusiness, the Leak’s are even more committed to serving the community includingthe indigent. They believe that it was God who founded the funeral home and thevision of Rev. Leak, his humility and his planting the seeds of success andconcern for others into the next generation that has sustained this iconic business.Leak’s son, Spencer, Jr., the apparent heir to this third generation business, haslearned well at his father’s side and continues to improve and upgrade thishistoric business as he prepares for another Leak member to take over one day.
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