Jesse Jackson Jr. gets furlough to attend grandmother’s funeral in Greenville

A federal judge has approved a request from Jesse Jackson Jr. for a four-day furlough from home detention in Washington to attend his grandmother’s funeral in Greenville.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the furlough will start Friday. Helen Burns Jackson died Monday at age 92. She is the mother of Jackson’s father, civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Jesse Jackson Jr. is a former Democratic congressman from Chicago. The 50-year-old was given a 30-month prison term in 2013 for illegally spending $750,000 in campaign money.

He is scheduled to be released from Bureau of Prisons’ custody on Sept. 20. He'll then serve three years of probation.

Jackson also received a four-day furlough to visit his grandmother when she was sick in August.

Helen Jackson’s life will be celebrated Sunday and Monday at Springfield Baptist Church in Greenville, the same church where she sang in the choir and from where her oldest son and the younger Jackson’s father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, set out from on foot as he marched to the Greenville Public Library as part of the “Greenville 8” in a civil rights protest on July 16, 1960 against segregated libraries.

A public viewing will be held from 4-6 p.m. Sunday followed by a celebratory musical at 6 p.m. at Springfield Baptist Church, 600 E. McBee Ave., Greenville.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, also at Springfield. Watkins, Garrett and Woods Mortuary is attending.

Jackson, who had been in declining health for several years, died Monday at Greenville Memorial Hospital. She was 92.

Associated Press

This story was originally published September 10, 2015 at 6:39 PM.