Mollie Nan Thibodeau

Mollie Nan (Mylor) Thibodeau died on July 12, 2024. She was born in Madison, Indiana and raised in Warsaw, Kentucky riding her favorite horse, a Tennessee Walker named Prince, on the banks of the Ohio River. “Mollie Nan”, as she was known in Kentucky, was the daughter of Edward Ahman Mylor and Marie Elizabeth Madin. She was Valedictorian and Senior Class President of the Gallatin County High School class of 1958 and a member of the All-State Chorus, Drama Club, Student Conductor of the Band, and Science Club.

Mollie graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences in 1962 with a degree in Radio, Television, Film and a passion for basketball. Throughout her life, a University of Kentucky basketball game stopped all other activities. During the U.K. vs. Louisville game, Mollie loved talking with her sister Rita Vaughan on the telephone before the game and at half-time, but never after because her sister rooted for Louisville. 

After graduation, Mollie worked in Cincinnati doing personnel counseling for corporations hiring new employees. Her last assignment was to interview flight attendants for Northwest Orient Airlines, where the job sounded so interesting that she decided to sit on the other side of the table and instead of interviewing candidates decided to be interviewed. She “flew” for Northwest for five years receiving many commendations including while flying under fire on military charters in and out of Da Nang, Vietnam. 

She married Thomas Raymond Thibodeau in 1966 and moved to Duluth, where she was known as Moll or Mollie. Her unpaid career was volunteerism and she served in the Junior League of Duluth for many years. She was President of the League in 1980. Her close friend and mentor, Joan Basgen, presented her with the League Sustainer of the Year award in 1992. 

As we have thought about Mollie’s life and legacy, the book The Giving Tree comes to mind. For 55 years, Mollie served on many organizations including the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation, A.M. Chisholm Museum, Duluth Art Institute, Minnesota Public Radio Regional Council, United Way Panel and Voluntary Resources Committee, Lawyers’ Wives of Minnesota, St. Louis County Heritage and Arts Center, Duluth Convention and Visitors Bureau, Marshall School, Bayfront Park Development Association, WDSE-TV Public Television, First Witness, Minnesota Private College Fund Committee, Miller Dwan Foundation, Solvay Hospice House and the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library. 

Mollie was appointed to the Minnesota Higher Education and Facilities Authority by Gov. Arne Carlson where she served 2 terms. Mollie was a charter member and Past President of the Duluth Public Arts Commission. 

Her paid career included the College of St. Scholastica, where she was the Director of Planned Giving and particularly enjoyed traveling all over the USA with Sister Timothy Kirby visiting alumni. Mollie was a member of the National Society of Fundraising Executives.

Mollie became a resident of Florida Sarasota and had many good friends and fond memories as a Sustainer with the Junior League of Sarasota where she was in charge of new member orientation. She continued giving in Florida, volunteering on condominium boards and ushering at her church.

Mollie’s mother won the prestigious Kentucky Master Farm Homemaker award in 1969, and Mollie loved to decorate homes and buy antiques, art and pottery. However, she did not inherit her mother’s love of cooking and delighted in submitting her “recipe” for Oreos and Tombstone frozen pizza to her son’s class recipe books at Holy Rosary School. 

Mollie was commissioned a Kentucky Colonel in 1965 by Kentucky Governor Edward Breathitt and hosted one of the longest running annual parties in Duluth at her home – the Kentucky Derby Party. 

Mollie was passionate about all things Irish including Boston Celtics Larry Bird, Robert Parish and Kevin McHale. Mollie loved Elvis and antiquing with Sharyn Seiler, Mary Lou O’Toole, and her nieces in Kentucky. 

In the early 1970s, after making a reservation for lunch at a private club in Duluth Mollie was instructed that women were only allowed to enter the club through the side entrance and eat in the Ladies’ Dining room for social occasions (not the Great Hall). Mollie called the club President and got the rules changed then and there. That day, she entered through the main entrance and dined in the Great Hall. She continued to fight for equal access for everyone, everywhere for the rest of her life, telling people that they were always entitled to use the “Main Entrance” in life. 

Her family agrees that possibly her greatest life work was meeting the woman that would become her daughter in-law, Mia E. Peterson and then introducing her to her son, Matt. 

Since her death, many women and men have commented about how much they benefitted from Mollie’s common-sense advice, her wit and determination to improve whatever organization she served on and her infectious smile. 

Molle is survived by her husband of 58 years Tom, their son Matt and daughter-in, law Mia and three granddaughters Clara, Hazel and Celeste and many family members in Kentucky. 

Visitation: Thursday, August 1st from 5–7 pm at the Dougherty Funeral Home and Friday, August 2, from 10:15am and will continue until the 11:00am Celebration of Mollie’s Life with a Mass of Christian Burial at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary 2801E 4th St, Duluth, MN. Mollie’s service can be watched online on the Cathedral’s YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdqiIvURaOqDpFtm-i28G3w 

 Memorials may be sent to the Damiano Center 206 W 4th St #214, Duluth MN 55806, College of St. Scholastica 1200 Kenwood Ave, Duluth MN, 55811 and Solvay Hospice House 502 E 2nd St, Duluth MN 55805. 

Please visit www.dfhduluth.com to sign the online guestbook.

Arrangements by Dougherty Funeral Home, 600 E 2nd St., Duluth MN 55805, (218)727-3555.

  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdqiIvURaOqDpFtm-i28G3w