Shafer & Perfetti Funeral Home in Taylorville, along with the Perfetti Funeral Homes in Morrisonville, Sorento, and Panama are all under new ownership. Taylorville resident Mike Assalley now owns the funeral homes, and each funeral home has been renamed. The Taylorville location is now Shafer, Perfetti and Asalley Funeral Home, while the other three locations are now Perfetti and Assalley Funeral Home.

Assalley has been in the funeral business since college, and he has always wanted to own and run his own funeral home.

The transition started late last year as former owner Dean Perfetti was looking to retire. Assalley reached out to Perfetti, starting the process that has led to Assalley taking over the four funeral homes. Assalley says funeral homes are meant to be a place where the community is comfortable mourning the loss of a friend or family member.

Assalley went to mortuary school in Galesburg at Carl Sandburg College. Once graduating, he went to work for Butler Funeral Homes out of Springfield.