Fiocchi opens second funeral home in Cherry

CHERRY — Rich Fiocchi, a lifelong resident of Bureau County, has recently opened his second funeral home in Cherry.

At the end of September, he took over ownership of the former Mueller Funeral Home in Cherry and renamed it Fiocchi Funeral Home.

Fiocchi previously worked for several years as an intern for the Mueller Funeral Home, the former owners of the Cherry funeral home.

“I didn’t plan to expand this soon,” Fiocchi said. “It has been a good year since I opened the funeral home in Princeton.”

He already operates Fiocchi-Jensen Funeral Home in Princeton. Fiocchi opened that funeral home on Aug. 1, 2007.

Fiocchi plans on gradually renovating his funeral home in Cherry as time goes on and funds permit. The Cherry funeral home will seat between 50 to 100 people, which is pretty large for the small town of Cherry, which has a population of 500 residents.

Fiocchi graduated from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale with a bachelor of mortuary science degree. He received two associate degrees from Illinois Valley Community College in Oglesby in 2002 prior to transferring to SIU to get his bachelor’s degree.

Chuck Mueller Sr. said they built the funeral home in Cherry in 1978, the same year they built their funeral home in Ottawa. Mueller also operates funeral homes in Peru, LaSalle, Ottawa, Oglesby and Lostant.

“He is a nice kid (Fiocchi),” said Mueller. “People respect him because he grew up over there. He was the first person we contacted when we decided to cut back.”

Comment on this story at www.bcrnews.com.