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Lawrence A. Jones & Sons Funeral Chapels is a Black-owned, family-owned funeral home founded in 1950 by Lawrence A. Jones Sr. and his wife Nettie in a three-room building at 18th Street and Park Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri. It grew to operate in three cities and runs two chapels today, one in Kansas City, Missouri and one at 2065 North Fifth Street in Kansas City, Kansas. Lindsay Jones serves as CEO and president. The founder, who began in the trade at fourteen cleaning morgues, was cited by former mayor Emanuel Cleaver as “one of the great strengths of the African-American community,” and built the firm on the explicit premise that families unable to pay would still be buried.

Description

Lawrence A. Jones & Sons Funeral Chapels is a funeral home operating two chapels in the Kansas City metro, one on the Missouri side and one at 2065 North Fifth Street in northeast Kansas City, Kansas.12 It has been owned by the Jones family since its founding in 1950 and is among the better-known Black-owned funeral businesses in the metro.13

Lawrence A. Jones Sr. entered the trade at fourteen, cleaning morgues and polishing vehicles at H.B. Moore Funeral Home. He founded his own firm in 1950 with his wife Nettie, and stated his reason for doing so in structural terms: “In this business…when the owners died, their business died.” He trained his sons in the work specifically so the enterprise would outlast him.1 The business began in three rooms at 18th Street and Park Avenue — inside the 18th and Vine district’s radius of Black commercial life — and at its largest operated in Kansas City, Missouri; Kansas City, Kansas; and Topeka.13

The firm’s founding principle, as its own history states it, was that cost would not determine whether a family could bury its dead: Jones provided burial services to families who could not afford them, on the reasoning that “you’re no more in death than you are in life.”1 Former Kansas City mayor Emanuel Cleaver described the founder as “one of the great strengths of the African-American community,” citing the combination of civic engagement and business success.1

Lindsay Jones is CEO and president of both facilities; Santa Jones is assistant vice president.1 Long-serving licensed staff include DeLawrence Shepherd, chapel manager since 2005; Larnell G. Jones, licensed funeral director and embalmer; Dave Bratton, chief embalmer since 2001; and Duane E. Harvey, licensed funeral director and assistant general manager, with more than fifty years in the trade.1

Goods and services

  • Traditional funeral services — visitation, chapel service, burial13
  • Cremation services3
  • Pre-planning and pre-need arrangements3
  • Grief support resources3
  • Embalming and preparation performed in-house by licensed staff1

History

Lawrence A. Jones Sr. began working in funeral service as a teenager at H.B. Moore Funeral Home and opened his own three-room chapel at 18th and Park Avenue in 1950 with Nettie Jones.13 Deliberate succession was part of the plan from the start — Jones had watched other Black-owned funeral businesses close on the deaths of their founders and trained his sons to prevent the same outcome at his own firm.1

The business expanded to as many as three cities, Kansas City on both sides of the state line and Topeka, before settling at its present two-chapel configuration.13 Ownership has remained with the Jones family across generations, with Lindsay Jones now CEO and president.13

One notable staff continuity: Duane E. Harvey, a licensed funeral director with more than fifty years of service, is listed on the firm’s staff.1 Harvey previously operated Duane E. Harvey Funeral Directors at 9100 Blue Ridge Boulevard in Kansas City, which third-party listings now report as closed.4

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Lawrence A. Jones Funeral Homes & Cremation — official site, “History & Staff” — asserts: founding in 1950 by Lawrence A. Jones Sr. and his wife Nettie; the founder starting at age fourteen cleaning morgues and polishing vehicles at H.B. Moore Funeral Home; his stated reason for founding the firm and his training of his sons for succession; the Emanuel Cleaver quotation “one of the great strengths of the African-American community”; the practice of burying families who could not pay and the “you’re no more in death than you are in life” formulation; origin in a three-room chapel at 18th Street and Park Avenue; historic operation in Kansas City MO, Kansas City KS and Topeka KS; two locations currently; Lindsay Jones as CEO and president and Santa Jones as assistant vice president; staff DeLawrence Shepherd (chapel manager since 2005), Larnell G. Jones, Dave Bratton (chief embalmer since 2001) and Duane E. Harvey (50+ years); family ownership with no parent company named. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15

  2. Yelp business listing — “Jones Lawrence A & Sons Funeral Chapels,” 2065 N 5th St, Kansas City, Kansas — asserts: the Kansas City, Kansas chapel address of 2065 North Fifth Street, Kansas City, KS 66101, and the listing’s continued active status as of a May 2026 update. Aggregator citation, used only for the street address and currency signal. ↩

  3. Better Business Bureau and aggregated coverage of Lawrence A Jones & Sons Funeral Chapels — BBB profile — asserts: the firm as a continuing Kansas City funeral business; founding by Lawrence A. Jones Sr. and Nettie Jones in 1950; continued family ownership; operation by Lindsay Jones; growth from a three-room funeral home at 18th and Park into a two-location operation with a historic peak of three cities; services including cremation, pre-planning and grief support. (Accessed via search 2026-08-14; the BBB page itself returned no body to direct fetch — see method note.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  4. Yelp business listing — “Duane E. Harvey Funeral Directors,” 9100 Blue Ridge Blvd, Kansas City, Missouri, marked closed — asserts: that the separate Duane E. Harvey funeral business at 9100 Blue Ridge Boulevard is reported closed as of a May 2026 update. Aggregator citation; closure not independently confirmed. ↩

Categories

On the record — ks.city/registry/lawrence-a-jones-and-sons-funeral-chapels · record updated 2026-08-14