Jerome “Jerry” Leavitt, 86, founder and chairman of the Union Liquor Co., died Tuesday in Weiss Memorial Hospital. He began working at his family’s grocery store when he was 14. That store was converted into a full-time beer distributorship with the repeal of Prohibition. It became a liquor and wine distributorship a year later. Mr. Leavitt established his own rectifying plant and developed Dimitri gin and vodka and other brands of spirits. Union Liquor eventually included a wine house and a national sales division. The business was sold in 1991. Mr. Leavitt was a charter member of Seaway National Bank. He is survived by three sons, Arnold, Philip and Richard; four sisters, Sylvia, Kay, Frances and Adelaide; a brother, Myro; six grandchildren; and a great-grandson. Services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday in The Piser Chapel, 9200 N. Skokie Blvd., Skokie.
