Spencer Leak Jr., one of the heads of funeral titan Leak and Sons, has died, the business confirmed Sunday. He was 56.
Mr. Leak Jr. was a grandson of the Rev. Andrew Leak, the Chicago funeral home’s founder, and one of three sons of Spencer Leak Sr.
The Leak family has been in the funeral business since 1933, when the Rev. 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 said 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 Sr. After Andrew Leak died in 1993, Spencer Leak Sr., now 88, took over as president and owner and renamed the business Leak and Sons; Mr. Leak Jr. began work there at a young age.
“I was 12, answering phones, 15, washing limousines and funeral attendant,” Mr. Leak Jr. told the Sun-Times earlier this year. “At 16, the day after I got my driver’s license, I was picking up families for funeral services.”
The family handled the funerals of several celebrities through the years, including soul singer Sam Cooke, comedian Bernie Mac, rapper Juice WRLD and drug kingpin William Morris “Flukey” Stokes.
Mr. Leak Jr. earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mortuary science and funeral service at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale before becoming a licensed funeral director in 1989 at age 20.
He ascended to vice president of Leak and Sons in 1993, shy of his 24th birthday. He also accidentally spurred about two dozen pound cake deliveries to the business in 2020 after a social media post he made about missing his favorite dessert spread online.
Earlier this year, he told the Chicago Sun-Times he considered himself and his father a “dynamic duo” as they prepared to host the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s funeral. The funeral home handled the services, and Leak Jr. personally drove the famed civil rights leader’s body to South Carolina in a brand new hearse.
“I never want to say that I’m in charge, because that would that would not be given a deference to my father,” Mr. Leak Jr. told the Sun-Times earlier this year. “[My father] calls me every morning, ‘You are my leader. What am I doing today?’ But it’s really the opposite.”
Mr. Leak Jr.’s siblings, mother and cousin are also involved in the business, which conducts more than 2,500 burials annually and has 106 employees. His son, Spencer “Tre” Leak III, had started working at the business last week.
“He is, at this point, the lowest person on the totem pole,” his father joked in a video posted to social media, one of several posts praising his son’s work. “I thank God for you Tre, you’re gonna be an excellent employee and assistant to us all. … Make your grandfather proud, make your great grandfather proud.”
Earlier this year, Mr. Leak Jr. said his son was set to start mortuary science school in the fall, following in his footsteps, before also potentially going to law school. But carrying on the Leak and Sons company was said to be high on his son’s list of priorities.
Tre “has said that he must continue our legacy,” Mr. Leak Jr. told the Sun-Times earlier this year. “There a lot of Black owned funeral homes are selling to conglomerates right now, and that’s one thing that that we discussed it a few years ago, but my son stepped up and said he did not want us to do that. He wants to be able to continue it.”
When Jesse Jackson Jr. first ran for Congress, Mr. Leak Jr. joined him on the campaign trail. The two had grown up playing basketball together, a continuation of a family friendship that developed earlier on when the Jacksons moved into the Leaks’ former home.
Mr. Leak Jr. also mentored Black youth through the nonprofit 100 Black Men.
Leak and Sons has three funeral home locations: One in Chicago, at 7838 S. Cottage Grove Ave., and two locations suburban Country Club Hills and Matteson.
He is survived by his wife Dr. Donna Leak and children Spencer Leak III and Emma Leak.