Molly Ruth Proffer

December 22, 1951 - October 25, 2020

Molly Ruth Proffer (née Magilow) passed away on Sunday, October 25th at 6:25 a.m. at the family home. The daughter of Melvin Magilow and Esther Zelda Kleinman, she grew up in the Brookside neighborhood of Kansas City, Mo. where she attended Southwest High School before traveling to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. to attend Vassar College. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, and briefly considered (but then thought better of) a graduate degree in Philosophy, choosing instead to return to Kansas City. Here, she worked in advertising and later at Hallmark. She met her husband, Don Proffer, and together they created and ran a successful media production company, Proffer Productions, for 40 years. Molly was her own woman. She cared deeply about her connection to her family and her friends, but she always emphasized the small things in life that make it all worthwhile. She was a huge fan of drinking 1 ½ glasses of wine, reading for the joy of reading, and spending time with her loved ones; and she was not too particular about what that entailed. She was the first person to laugh at a joke, even if it only really merited a chuckle. She had the ability to advise without being patronizing, and to criticize with compassion— a line few people learn to walk. Molly was happy to be around the famous, to be glory-adjacent, but she really didn’t care for the spotlight much herself. She lived down the hall from Meryl Streep at Vassar, and once rode in a limousine with the international soccer star Peilei, when she was an alternate cheerleader for the Kansas City Chiefs. She liked being behind the camera, not under the lights. An athletic woman all her life, she loved games like field hockey, squash, and tennis. She tried jogging, but it was too boring. She was deeply devoted to her family and to her community. She dedicated the majority of her considerable energy and talents to serving others. She enjoyed a good detective story and lived for lively conversation full of laughter and confidences. Her clear vision and bright humor will never be far from our minds. She is survived by her husband, Donald Proffer; daughter Abby Lordan and son-in-law Joe Lordan; two sons, Ben and Alex; granddaughters, Riley Ann Lordan and Madison Rose Lordan; brothers, Lee and Roger; and a dear stepmother, Audrey Leban. A brief service will be held at Rose Hill Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations are encouraged to the Alzheimer’s Association, Heart of America chapter