| Summary: | Mortuary owner and civic activist, Abner "Val" Jean Jackson, Sr. was born on April 22, 1933 in Wichita, Kansas. He served in the U.S. Army and was one of the first African Americans to serve with the Wichita Fire Department. He left the department in 1967 to join the family business. For nearly sixty years, the Jackson Mortuary was an institution in Wichita, Kansas. The family-owned-and-operated mortuary and its owners, twins Abner Val Jean Jackson, Sr. and Anderson Eugene Jackson, held a place of honor in the community of Wichita. While running the mortuary, Jackson and his wife, Erma, operated Jackson Realty and Skin Appeal Cosmetics. They managed Calvary Towers Senior Citizen Housing Project and had other business holdings. Jackson was a member of the National Urban League and the NAACP. He was involved in policymaking for the City of Wichita. Jackson passed away on November 14, 2002 at age 69.
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