Leon Stapleton, longtime Kansas City grocer built a multigenerational grocery business in Kansas City, offering jobs, community support and lessons in ownership to family and neighbors. He died Sept. 14 at age 100.
Rich Sugg
The Kansas City Star
Long before Leon Stapleton became known as a pioneering Black grocer and longtime Kansas City businessman, his oldest son remembers a more practical reason his father entered the grocery industry: He had a family to support.
Stapleton began working for Safeway in 1947, the same year he married his wife, Willosia. Over 21 years, he advanced from clerk to produce manager, assistant manager and the company’s first Black store manager, according to his obituary. In May 1968, he left Safeway and purchased United Super Market at 39th Street and Kensington Avenue, beginning a family business that would serve Kansas City’s urban core for decades.
“He had to have a good job,” said Vernon Stapleton, his oldest son. “He was having kids, and he needed a steady job, so he went to Safeway down on 29th and Troost.”
For Stapleton’s children and grandchildren, the grocery business became inseparable from family life. His children worked in the store, and later generations learned many of the same lessons there. When his son was 11, his father acquired the business and said he did not initially understand what the store represented outside their family.
As Stapleton reached his teenage years, he began noticing its larger role of his father’s store. The family knew its customers, stocked products geared toward Black shoppers and offered services beyond groceries. He remembers the store cashing checks and his father sometimes allowing customers who were short on money to take groceries and pay later.
“We got to know everybody. Everybody got to know my family,” Stapleton said. “We all looked out for each other.”
Stapleton and his wife were married for 62 years and raised seven children. Their youngest daughter, Wanda Thomas, remembers her father as a provider who could be stern and demanding, particularly when his children worked at the grocery store. She said those expectations came from wanting them to learn how to do things correctly.
Thomas left Kansas City at 17 to attend Clark College in Atlanta and eventually made Atlanta her home. As she grew older, she came to better understand the stature her father had developed back home. What stayed with her personally, however, were the lessons learned from growing up around the family business.
“I think my dad just taught me to work hard, and you can do anything you want to do,” Thomas said.
Grandfather’s lessons
Those lessons continued with Stapleton’s grandchildren. Stefan August said he and other grandchildren worked at the store from childhood. Stapleton wanted them to understand how to earn an honest living, but August said his grandfather’s ambitions for them extended beyond stocking shelves and bagging groceries.
August, who now owns a business himself, remembers Stapleton emphasizing ownership and self-sufficiency. He said his grandfather wanted younger family members to inherit principles that could help them create opportunities of their own.
Leon Stapleton (left) advanced from Safeway manager to owner of United Super Market, creating a family business and community legacy. Rich Sugg The Kansas City Star
“He was always trying to teach us to be more than just being a sacker or stocker but real entrepreneurship,” August said, “and wanted us to always inherit the things that he taught us in life to make it in life.”
The family also watched Stapleton extend opportunities to people outside their household. August remembers young people being given work distributing grocery advertisements when they were too young for traditional store jobs. Sometimes, he said, parents approached Stapleton because they wanted to keep their children occupied and away from trouble.
His son remembers his father encouraging other Black people who were considering entrepreneurship. Stapleton would offer advice, explain how to approach a problem or direct aspiring owners toward resources that might help them move forward.
“He cared about the neighborhood,” his oldest son said. “He tried to pushed people to go in business. Other Black people thought they couldn’t make it happen, and he would tell people how to get some things done, or push them in the right direction.”
Stapleton’s home life
At home, Stapleton’s public accomplishments could fade into ordinary family life. Thomas remembers sitting on her father’s lap for a family photograph as a young child and the excitement of moving into a new home he provided. She also remembers a father who stayed busy, enjoyed golf and could come home and fuss about something as simple as lights being left on.
Those everyday memories have become more significant since Stapleton died Sept. 14 at age 100. Thomas said the family had time to prepare as her father’s physical abilities declined. Even so, what she expects to miss most is not connected to the grocery store or his place in Kansas City history.
“I’m just going to miss just talking to him in general with a daily normal conversation,” Thomas said. “I’m going to miss that tremendously.”
Since his death, family members have heard from Kansas Citians with memories of Stapleton, including stories his children had never heard. Vernon said the response has shown another side of a life the family experienced from inside the grocery store and home.
For August, his grandfather’s influence can now be measured across generations. The business Stapleton built provided for his children, employed his grandchildren and demonstrated what Black ownership could look like in Kansas City’s urban core. August said he remembers a grandfather who remained committed even through difficult periods.
“I never saw him give up or fold,” August said.
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J.M. Banks
The Kansas City Star
J.M. Banks is The Star’s culture and identity reporter. He grew up in the Kansas City area and has worked in various community-based media outlets such as The Pitch KC and Urban Alchemy Podcast.
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