Molly grew up on Boston's Beacon Hill, spent weekends at Duxbury's Island Creek Pond and summers in Chilmark. She attended Beacon Hill Nursery School and the Josiah Quincy Elementary School in Chinatown. After several years at Boston Latin School, she transferred to the Dublin School in Dublin, N.H., where she was class valedictorian. Molly was a member of Skidmore College's Class of 2004 until the onset of her illness, when she transferred to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and pursued art studies. She then moved to Los Angeles, Calif., where she lived independently and continued her art.

Ms. Shugrue leaves her sisters Rosamond Page Shugrue of West Tisbury; Hillary Greene Shugrue of Los Angeles, Calif.; Whitney Shugrue Hermann of Arlington Heights; and a brother Edward L. Shugrue III of New York City. She was the granddaughter of the late Donald and Miriam Greene Hurley of Weston and Chilmark and the late Edward and Mary Elizabeth Shugrue of Milton. She leaves her aunt and uncle, Mary Elizabeth and James Lampert of Duxbury; her cousins, Nicolas, Michael, and Stephen Lampert; her godmother, Ruth Gardner Lamere of Duxbury; and her godfather, the late Gordon H. Berg; two nephews, and many other aunts, uncles and cousins.

A Boston memorial service will be held in late March or early April; burial will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Molly's memory either to the Dublin School, Dublin, NH 03444, Attn: Erika Rogers; the Josiah Quincy School, 885 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111, Attn: Bak Fun Wong; or to Communities Actively Living Independent and Free (Calif), 634 South Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90014, Attn: Josefina Coscolluela.