70 years of Kankakee service

Jeff Jones did not envision a career as a funeral home director in 1967 as he walked across the Kankakee Eastridge High School graduation stage.

As a member of the first graduating class of Eastridge, he had far different thoughts.

The eldest child of Thomas and Annie Jones, he had nearly 60 college offers. He settled on attending Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga.

He was not thinking of a career in funeral home ownership, but that is indeed what would take place.

Two years into his collegiate career, Jones left Morehouse College and enrolled in a school far closer to Kankakee. He signed up at Worsham College of Mortuary Science in Wheeling. His course was set.

Jeff Jones looks back at his diploma and 1970 graduating class from obtain his mortician’s license from Worsham College of Mortuary Science, hanging on his office wall at Jones Funeral Home in Kankakee on Feb. 18, 2026. Jones, who took over after his father Thomas Jefferson Jones, Jr., has stewarded the the family business into its 70th year. (Tiffany Blanchette)

This year the Jones Funeral Home, a business fixture since 1973 at 1055 N. Schuyler Ave., is celebrating 70 years of operations by the father-son duo of the late Thomas J. Jones, Jr., who died in 1998 at the age of 73, and Jeff, who took ownership in 2001.

Jones Funeral Home is the oldest Black-owned business in Kankakee.

The family also operated a longtime dry cleaning business, Economy Dry Cleaners. At one point before taking ownership of the funeral home business, Jeff served as general manager of the funeral home and dry cleaners.

The 76-year-old Jones, now operating the business as a second-generation owner, knows he is where he was always meant to be.

As the eldest child, Jones said, there are many responsibilities which come with such distinction.

With no one in place to assist his father and be in place to take over leadership whenever the time arose, Jeff settled in.

“It’s what a good son would do,” he simply stated. “I grew up in the funeral home business.”

‘Able to help people’

For Jones it almost seems impossible that the family has been in the funeral home business for 70 years, having started in 1956 with Unity Funeral Parlors when Thomas took over operations.

Two years later, the Joneses purchased the Kankakee establishment and renamed it Jones Funeral Home, then located at 793 N. Rosewood Ave.

While the profession may not have been what he first envisioned, Jones is well pleased with his decision to return home and carry on what is now something of a local institution.

“I’m able to help people. People I’ve known for years. I would be hurting if I had not been able to help my friends,” he said before silence fell over him for a few moments.

He began speaking again.

“I look at my life now and I’m where I’m supposed to be. I know that,” he said.

Jeff Jones talks about the changes he's seen in funeral services, including cremation, in his office at Jones Funeral Home in Kankakee on Feb. 18, 2026. (Tiffany Blanchette)

While he may have been somewhat reluctant to have joined the profession, Jones has reached a point in his life where he could not imagine doing anything else.

Blessed with a presence to put people at ease, Jones said conducting business at a funeral home is not unlike that of any other entity.

“This is all about relationships,” he said.

The location conducts upwards of 90 funerals annually. It is a business which keeps him in motion – sometimes more than he would like – but he is aware of its importance.

And while he rarely has the thought that he is “going to work,” he does acknowledge that the age of 80 is not all that far into the future, like it or not.

A 3rd generation?

He is seeking – and hoping – he can find just the right person to one day soon take over the business. He is not willing to turn it over to just anyone. That option, he said, is out of the question.

Owner Jeff Jones stands outside the Jones Funeral Home in Kankakee on Feb. 18, 2026. Jones took over the business after his father, Thomas J. Jones, Jr., who commissioned the wrought iron details along the building's entry from a local business on Schuyler Avenue. (Tiffany Blanchette)

He said he will keep the business moving forward. He has staff in place and while he offered a joke or two about working into his 90s, that is an option likely not relished.

With photos of his father decorating the office walls, Jones is asked what his father would say about him since he took over ownership of Jones Funeral Home in 2001.

A response comes quickly to Jones.

“I think he would be proud,” he said. And, he noted, he followed the golden rule that his father established.

“Treat people right and everything will work out. God is in control. We are not. We give what people need.”

He again paused.

“Dad thrived here. He wanted life to be on his terms, not someone else’s. It’s my intention that Jones Funeral Home will be here for a long time.”

He, however, would like to see someone than he at the helm at some point.

But he doesn’t want to simply fade away.

“I want to be a part of it.”