History
McClure Funeral Home has been serving Illinois area families for years. We are honored to be a part of the rich history of this community and plan to be a part of it for many years to come.
The building that is the long-time home of McClure Funeral Home began as a private residence before the turn of the 20th century. Around 1896 the Marblestone Family built a private residence they would call home for many years. The Marblestone family is well known in Christian County because they were the long-time proprietors of a fine clothing store on the Taylorville square. As was very common for the era, the private home was turned into a business serving the needs of the local families that had lost a loved one. The Abel Funeral Home was one of the predecessors of the current funeral home operation that traces its roots back close to 70 years. In the 1950s Ned Connolly purchased the facility and following the closing of the current occupants, Connolly Funeral Home was established to serve the community.
In 1981 Mike and Jan McClure had the opportunity to move to Taylorville to partner in the business with Ned. In the 1980’s the name of the business was changed to Connolly- McClure Funeral Home where together for many years, Ned and Mike cared for their neighbors in their time of need not only through the funeral home, but also through an ambulance service that operated until 1995. Mr. Connolly retired from the business at the end of 1993 and he passed away in 2002. In 1999, Mike’s son Scott, who grew up living above the funeral home, graduated from the Mortuary Science and Funeral Service program at Southern Illinois University and joined in the family business working with Mike for many years.
With Scott joining the business the name was changed to McClure Funeral Home to reflect the dedication the McClure Family has to serving their community. Mike and Scott worked together for many years, and in October of 2015 Mike and Jan retired and passed ownership of the business to Scott and Susie McClure. Scott and Susie are proud of the heritage of the funeral home and are honored to serve their community for many more years to come.
The turn-of-the-century building that is home to McClure Funeral Home and Cremation Services has seen many changes over the years. In the 1960’s, Mr. Connolly added a large addition to the western side of the existing home to provide more public space as well as office space and merchandise selection. In 1994 and 1995 Mike and Jan McClure embarked on an ambitious plan to add a new chapel, embalming room, garage, and other workspace along with a complete renovation from top to bottom of the existing building. With an eye for the future and the growing trend of cremation, in 2008 Scott planned and brought to fruition the construction of an on-site crematory building to serve not only the cremation needs of the funeral home, but also to offer pet cremation services through dedicated facilities for that purpose. Through these large construction and remodeling projects, along with countless smaller projects, the McClure Family has shown their care for the community through providing the best facilities possible to compliment the high level of service they and their staff provide to the families they serve. In 2015, to better reflect that McClure Funeral Home is the only funeral home in Christian County to have a crematory, the name of the business was changed to McClure Funeral Home and Cremation Services.
