MOLLY MCGREEVY

McGREEVY--Molly Paine,

died on Sunday, November 1, 2015, at her home in Pittsford, NY. Born on June 11, 1936, to Hugh Eustis Paine and Helen Duncan Paine, she graduated from The Chapin School and Vassar College, completing as her senior thesis a play based on her favorite childhood character, Mary Poppins. After college, Molly moved to Paris to study mime under Marcel Marceau. Returning to Manhattan, she met and married stockbroker Thomas James McGreevy and then moved to Kansas City, MO, where their three daughters were born. A free spirit with a wild sense of humor, she told her daughters that she brought the new dance "The Twist" to that reserved Midwestern town. Molly resumed her career as an actress in local theatre, in the movie "Shoot it Black, Shoot it Blue" (1974), and as Polly Longworth in the TV soap opera Ryan's Hope (between 1977 and 1981). She also produced the documentary "Nothing by Chance" (1975). She married actor Earl Hindman in 1976 and moved to Stamford, CT, where he continued his acting career in movies, theatre, and TV (playing Wilson, the "Hi-di- ho" neighbor in "Home Improvement" who was never seen except for his head looking over the fence). Changing course, Molly received her Master of Divinity from The General Theological Seminary in New York City in 1986. She was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church on June 10, 1989, and was ordained a priest on December 1, 1989. During the height of the 1980s AIDS crisis in New York, Molly worked as a chaplain at Mount Sinai St. Luke's Hospital, New York, NY, and as an assistant to the rector at the Church of St. Luke in the Fields (from 1989 to 1996), providing funeral services to over 60 AIDS victims and their families. She became the associate priest at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Stamford, CT, from 1996 until her retirement in 2005, after which she moved to Pittsford, in 2009 to be closer to her grandchildren. Her sense of humor, opposition to injustice, and love of all God's creatures (especially her grandchildren and corgis) distinguished her clerical duties, and her prior career as an actress gave an added "elan" to her preaching. All who knew her will remember her with great love. She is survived by her three daughters, Pamela McGreevy of Pittsford, Jessica McGreevy of Norwalk, CT, and Barbara McGreevy of Shawnee Mission, KS, and her grandchildren, Natalie Newman and Alexander Newman of Pittsford. There will be a memorial service at St. Francis Episcopal Church, 2810 Long Ridge Road, Stamford, CT on Friday, December 4 at 2pm. If you wish, please make a contribution in Molly's memory to the ASPCA, St. Francis Episcopal Church, The Chapin School, and/or Vassar College.