Kathleen Prochazka

Kathleen Prochazka Kathleen McClacherty Prochazka, 69, passed away on Thursday evening, the 26th of July at her home on the beach at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. 

Kathy was born November 23, 1948 in Topeka, Kansas, the daughter of James (dec.) and Margery McClacherty. She married Ron Prochazka on March 5th, 1980. They celebrated their 34th anniversary a week before his death on March 12, 2014.

Kathy wanted to write her own obituary, but she ran out of time, and so we must extrapolate from her notes and comments regarding what she wanted to say as the curtain fell.

In her teenage years at Highland Park High School in Topeka, Kathy was a self described "theatre nerd. " Too shy to act, she crewed in the plays and musicals. Years later she delighted in watching her son and then her grandson onstage, often traveling hundreds of miles for the sheer pleasure of it.

Kathy retired after over thirty years as an investigator for the Kansas Human Rights Commission, but continued, in her retirement, to champion people in need because, she said, "I love to help people out when they're in a jam." 

She loved blues music, the Beatles, casinos, theatre, world travel, the beach and the ocean. Most of all, she loved to dance with her husband Ron, whom she missed terribly. 

For three years, she danced alone. 

Last year her doctors diagnosed her with cancer and gave her three months to live. Contrary to the end, Kathy lived over a year and was proud that in her last major act she proved the doctors wrong. 

Kathy didn't want people to mourn. She summed it up with the wish that she could always be in the hearts of her friends and family in times of joy. She said that the song that best embodied her love of celebration and dance is Joe Diffie's "Prop Me Up Against the Jukebox If I Die."

As her son Kyle sang to her and played recordings of her favorite blues and show tunes, she left us to be with Ron, in a place where they will dance together again. 

She is survived by her son, William Kyle Prochazka (Linnet) of Atlanta, Georgia; five grandchildren, three great-grandchildren; as well as a brother, James; sisters Janis and Judy; and her mother, Margery, of Topeka.