Willabelle Jackson, a Waukegan resident since 2018, broke a lot of barriers as a single Black woman on the South Side of Chicago in the 1940s, becoming an entrepreneur and a landlord in her mid-20s.
Now 108, Jackson takes life easier than she did when she was operating a laundry business, living in one unit of her South Side six-flat and renting out the other five units, as well as playing in national Bridge tournaments.
Born during World War I, she survived the time of the Spanish Flu, started building a small business empire during World War II and came through the coronavirus pandemic unscathed. She also found time to travel, which her granddaughter, Debra Foulkes, credits with her longevity.
“It was family, her everyday life and Arkansas water,” Foulkes said. “Grandmother would go (to Hot Springs) every year for a month taking sitz baths, drinking the water, taking steam baths, massages (and) manicures. She had the water shipped home.”
Jackson was honored with the Waukegan Proud Award by Mayor Sam Cunningham on Thursday at her home, the Terrace Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Waukegan, for her life of achievement and longevity. She turned 108 on March 2.
“It’s unbelievable what Mrs. Jackson was able to do in her life,” Cunningham said of the oldest person he has ever met. “She accomplished all of this at a time when it was almost impossible, being both a woman and being Black.”
Cunningham was not the only person fetting Jackson. Lake County Sheriff John Idleburg gave her a proclamation from the county, and U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park, brought an official letter from Washington, D.C.
“All these barriers she broke were done at a time when it was nearly impossible,” Schneider said. “She didn’t just break those barriers, she charged through them for the rest of us.”
Born March 2, 1917, in Montgomery, Alabama, Foulkes said Jackson moved to Chicago with her family when she was 3 as part of the Great Migration, bringing many Black people from the southern U.S. to the northern states. She graduated from Hyde Park High School.
Foulkes said Jackson helped family members and others move from the South to Chicago. Johnny Ramsey, Jackson’s brother-in-law and a resident of Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood, said moving north was a necessity then.
“Birmingham was racist,” Ramsey said. “You couldn’t accomplish anything there. Chicago was a good place to be.”
Graduating high school in the midst of the Depression, Foulkes said many Black people did not put their money in banks either because they were unwelcome or they were afraid. It turned out to be a good thing.
“We didn’t lose our money,” Foulkes said of her family. “It wasn’t in the bank. We kept it somewhere else.”
Starting her laundry business, Foulkes said her grandmother invested her profits in real estate, buying a six-unit apartment in the 6600 block of Cottage Grove Avenue.
“Willabelle (Jackson) valued family unity, helping many siblings migrate north and offering them support,” Foulkes said.
At a time when women could not own property or operate a business on their own, Foulkes said her grandmother signed her name using her initials, W.F., before her last name. She was single during her early entrepreneurial years before marrying Charles Jackson in 1957.
