Spencer Leak Jr.

CTL-E-5876 · Person · other · c. 1970–2026

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07128 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-5876.

Spencer Leak Jr. was a Chicago funeral director and vice president of Leak & Sons Funeral Homes, the Black-owned family business founded by his grandfather, the Rev. A. R. Leak, in 1933. A third-generation leader of the firm, he began working in it as a boy and, by his own account to the Chicago Sun-Times, was answering phones at twelve and serving as a funeral attendant in his teens. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mortuary science and funeral service at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, became a licensed funeral director in 1989 at about twenty years old, and rose to vice president of Leak and Sons in 1993, before his twenty-fourth birthday. He led the firm alongside his father, Spencer Leak Sr., and his brothers Stacy and Stephen, and the family statement remembered him as an advocate for families who could not afford a burial and a mentor to Chicago entrepreneurs. In February 2026 he helped guide the Leak family's care for the funeral of the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson. Leak died on May 31, 2026, at age fifty-six, survived by his wife Donna and their children, Emma and Spencer Leak III.

The record

• Also known as: Spencer Leak, Jr.

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Scan Tail Wave 1 — 747 Program, Wave 8; first Scan Tail packet at the founder's 40-record size). Gate A (2026-10-16): no Spencer Leak Jr. entity in the live graph at 3,523 entities (exact / normalized / alias + token containment); ID CTL-E-5876 free. Hand-read: the token 'Leak' returns only Leak & Sons (Business, CTL-E-5238) — the homed family business; the man himself was the gap this record fills. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger, Tier 4 — corpus scan tail tranche (corpus-gap-candidates-2026-10-15.json ranked clean survivor #351). The scan supplied the NAME STRING ONLY; no fact in this record is sourced to it (CTL-GOV-004). SCOPE GATE: PASS — third-generation leader of a homed, historic Black Chicago funeral business; the person record completes the business record already in the graph. Vital status: DECEASED (May 31, 2026, per Black Enterprise, June 1, 2026, reporting the Leak family statement); tribute treatment. NOTE: this packet's roster did not list Leak among its deceased subjects — vital-status verification from sources found the May 2026 death, and the record follows the sources (CTL-GOV-004). STATISTICS (sourced, dated): Leak & Sons comprises three Illinois locations — Chicago, Country Club Hills, and Matteson (Black Enterprise, June 1, 2026); the Leak family statement reported that he helped lead the firm for more than 45 years (Black Enterprise, June 1, 2026). No other statistic is asserted. MEDIA: photo HELD (no image verified at file-page level in this pass; named candidate is the Chicago Sun-Times obituary portrait of Spencer Leak Jr.); chart FILLED (charts/chart-ctl-e-5876-spencer-leak-jr.svg); video HELD (no matching-entity CTL Short in the catalog and no verified embeddable archival video staged); audio HELD (no verified archival audio of Spencer Leak Jr. staged in this pass). MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Person records carry no map slot under the media-layer rule; maps attach to places and institutions.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (CTL-created SVG (black / deep red / gold) built only from this record's sourced facts) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map catalog (checked by name and variants), and no official/em) | audio = HELD (No verified archival audio of Spencer Leak Jr. was staged in this pass.)

Relationships

• Leak & Sons — affiliated with
  Spencer Leak Jr. served as funeral director and vice president of Leak & Sons Funeral Homes, the family business founded by his grandfather in 1933 (Black Enterprise obituary, June 1, 2026).

Sources

• Black Enterprise, "Spencer Leak Jr., 3rd-Generation Leader Of Chicago's Leak & Sons Funeral Homes, Dies At 56" (June 1, 2026) — death May 31, 2026 at 56; vice president and funeral director; third-generation leader; grandfather A.R. Leak founded the firm in 1933; three Illinois locations; family statement on his advocacy and on guiding care for Rev. Jesse L. Jackson — https://www.blackenterprise.com/spencer-leak-jr-chicago-funeral-home-dies/ (build store)
• Chicago Sun-Times obituary, as republished by Afro-Conscious Media, "Spencer Leak Jr., Chicago funeral director who handled Rev. Jesse Jackson's funeral, is dead at 56" (May 31, 2026) — Southern Illinois University mortuary science degree; licensed funeral director in 1989 at age 20; vice president in 1993 before his 24th birthday; began work at the firm at age 12 — https://afroconsciousmedia.com/2026/05/31/spencer-leak-jr-chicago-funeral-director-who-handled-rev-jesse-jacksons-funeral-is-dead-at-56/ (build store)

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Record CTL-E-5876 · Combined Graph record U-07128 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 2 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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