Jackson Mortuary marks its 100th anniversary this month and is the oldest continuous Black family-owned business in Wichita. The funeral home was once led for decades by identical twin brothers, Anderson Eugene “Gene” Jackson and Abner Val Jean Jackson, Sr., known as pillars in the community. For this edition of In The Mix, Carla Eckels sat down with the twins' children. Michael Jackson, who now runs the business, and his first cousin, Debra (Jackson) Dudley, talk about the family legacy.
The Twins
Jackson Mortuary's twin brothers, Val and Gene, were born in Wichita on April 22, 1933. Val was born first, but only by 20 minutes.
Michael Jackson, the son of Val, now leads the mortuary as president, owner and fourth-generation funeral director. First cousin Debra Dudley, daughter of twin brother Gene, said their pregnant grandmother, Janett Jackson, lovingly known as Nanny, didn’t take any medication to offset any pain.
“No sedative, nothing,” Dudley said. “They told me, some of the older folks, that we could hear your grandma two blocks away.”
At the time, Nanny was unaware that she was having twins who would look exactly alike.
“She didn't have a clue. She didn't have a clue”, Dudley said.
The Jackson twins grew up and took over the family-owned business — which was founded in 1926 — and were prominent historical figures in Wichita. Ownership was handed down by their grandfather, Abner B. Jackson Sr., who retired in 1950. Then in 1982, Abner Jr. bequeathed the business to his twin sons, Gene and Val, along with his grandson Michael E. Jackson. He described his dad, Val, as strict.
“If he works hard, he wants you to work hard,” Jackson said. “If he gave you a chore to do, he’d expect that chore would be taken care of.”
And whenever his father would ask, Jackson said he would respond by doing it. Dudley said her father, Gene, was also strict, but she knew the way to both of their hearts.
“We knew that if daddy said do something, we better do it,” Dudley said, “but being a girl, we kind of had a way of wrapping him around our finger.
Both Jackson and Dudley agreed that friends and customers had a hard time telling their dads, the twins, apart.
They play games on people sometimes,” Jackson said. “My uncle Gene would say, ‘Yeah, I'm Val.’ I’d say, ‘You know, you ain't my dad.’”
Val and Gene also admitted to playing pranks on teachers when they were younger and in school. For some in the community, it could be hard to tell the twins apart.
“[When] they were walking away from you at the same time,” Jackson said, “you'd have to watch their walk. My uncle Gene also had a higher voice than my dad, Val.”
Val Jackson was vice president of Jackson Mortuary, earning his funeral license in 1961. He was also involved in policy making for the city and served on multiple boards, including as chairman of Wichita’s Metropolitan Planning Commission and Board of Trustees at Calvary Missionary Baptist Church. Jackson said his dad's greatest asset was just being a people person; that he was good at “blending in with the people and making them feel comfortable around him.”
Gene Jackson was the first Black embalmer to serve as president of the Kansas State Board of Mortuary Arts. He was also a trustee and served in various capacities at St. Paul AME Church. Dudley said her father Gene’s greatest asset was also communicating with people.
“He was a talker,” Dudley said, “he was a social person, you know? He liked people, so he was always with the community, talking.”
All In The Family
Grandpa Abner Jackson, Jr. quietly found ways to be generous.
“He would stop by people's home that he knew were having a hard time and visit with them for a minute,” Jackson said. “When he got up, he’d leave a little envelope back there on their chair.”
“Gramps did a lot,” Dudley said. “Although he might have looked kind of gruff sometimes, he did a lot.
In 1926, the Jackson family started an ambulance service at 628 N. Main in Wichita, which evolved into Jackson Mortuary. In 1933, the full-service mortuary moved its operations to 703 N. Water.
The building at 704 N. Water is now a parking lot for the Red Cross. Abner Jackson Sr. retired from the multi-generational business in 1950. Abner Jr. took over, eventually moving it to its present location at 1125 E. 13th Street, near 13th & Ohio, in Wichita in 1965.
Jackson and Dudley both remember spending time as kids at the mortuary, which was then located near downtown Wichita.
“We ate our lunch downstairs with my grandmother, Nanny,” Dudley said. “It was a small basement, you can’t imagine people living down there, but that's where they lived.”
“It was a two-bedroom,” Jackson added. “That's where my work ethic started, washing cars and cutting grass and even cutting for some of the people across the street. I used to cut Emerson McAdams' yard right across the street.”
The Jackson twins were responsible for new construction and doubling the space in 1985. For decades, the brothers were steeped in the mortuary business, and what they most appreciated about working in the death care industry was extending compassion.
“I think it was a point of helping people and consoling people,” Jackson said. “Showing some empathy toward their situation. Everybody has a different situation in this business, and so they were able to somehow get through the process of making it work, and that's what I did. I just watched them operate, and that was a bonus too. I had two of them to watch. Well, my grandpa, three. My Gramps was stern about his situation.”
Val Jackson, Sr., died in 2002. Gene Jackson passed away in 2012. What Dudley wants people to remember about her dad, Gene, was his thoughtfulness, “He was a caring person,” she said. “That he would almost give his shirt off his back for you.
The legacy of Jackson Mortuary continues to live on into its fifth generation. Michael Jackson is part of the 4th generation, and his son Torrance works alongside him.
“I can look at some of these young boys and say, ‘Boy, I know who you belong to,’” Jackson said with a chuckle.
“Yes, we feel like we're older now,” Dudley said. “I just turned 70. Michael and I are both the same age, but he’s older.
As a part of a new generation, Torrance Jackson watches how his dad operates.
“He's got his own way, too,” Jackson said. “He’s a blessing to me. He's one of the best embalmers in the state of Kansas. I have to give it to him, he’s good.”
The mortuary staff includes Michael Jackson, with help from his wife Deborah, their two sons, Jamaun and Torrence Jackson, and Torrence’s wife, Chasity.
Jackson and Dudley agree that the work is personal to their family and has been for an entire century. Quite often, they think about their fathers, the twins, who knew people. Jackson agrees that when he’s contacted about a death, it could very well be someone he knows. He may even have had a relationship with them.
Some of the older people who had passed away," Jackson said, "were like aunts and uncles to me, because they saw me in the business, and I appreciated their prayers, or whatever they gave to make it so that it still exists, it's just being in this environment, and being trustworthy with the people you operate with, and they appreciate that.”
Dudley knows that integrity is really important, even though she doesn’t work in the family business. She pursued a career in retail. But people who are familiar with the mortuary still associate Dudley with the family because she is a Jackson and is often told how much she looks like her father, Gene.
“I am so proud of Michael, and you know,” Dudley said as she suddenly tears up, “I get emotional because he is daddy's son and Uncle Val's son.
“My grandmother used to always have this song that she used to sing, and my mother used to play the piano over at Calvary, ‘If I Can Help Somebody’:
“‘As I pass along this way / my living shall not be in vain.’”
“I believe that is what the Jackson family has always tried to strive to be,” Dudley said. “That is the motto.”
A motto that has lasted 100 years.
