Mitzi "Dee" Pflumm

Mitzi Dee Pflumm, loving known as Dee, passed away on July 15, 2026 surrounded by her loved ones. 

Dee Pflumm arrived on February 12, 1932, in the middle of the Depression, to parents who had little money but never let it show. Her father, Alfred Maxwell Meyers, was a structural steel draftsman whose work carried the family from Shawnee to Salt Lake City, to McGill, Nevada, to Flin Flon, Manitoba, to New York City and Chicago. Dee attended kindergarten in a rooming house and fifth grade in Evanston, Illinois, before the family settled back in Kansas for good. Her mother, Leada Grace (May) Meyers, worked as a seamstress at the Nellie Don Garment Company, sewing through the lean years so the family could get by. Dee often said she couldn't imagine a fuller life than the one her parents gave her.

After graduating high school in 1950, Dee headed to Kansas State College. It was fitting as her own father had played center on the K-State football team years before. Dee pledged Pi Beta Phi and remained a proud Pi Phi for the rest of her life. She most recently received her 75 Year pin.

It was at K-State that she met Leslie Joseph Wood, a Pi Kappa Alpha, studying architecture. On June 6, 1952, they married at Shawnee United Methodist Church, the same congregation her grandparents had helped establish decades before.

Marriage soon meant Army life. Les served as an engineer rebuilding bridges in postwar Germany. Dee joined him there pregnant with their first child who was born in Landstuhl in 1955. The young family spent a year touring Europe.

Upon their return to Kansas, they built a home in Merriam where they raised four children: Sheri, Leslie "Drew," Tammy, and Lance. After nineteen years of marriage, Dee and Les grew apart divorcing in 1971.

Needing work, Dee took a job at Shawnee State Bank, the bank her own grandfather had helped found in 1908, where she met Ronald Hudson Pflumm. They soon married in Las Vegas on April 3, 1978.

Dee and Ron built a life around two great shared passions: family and Colorado. What began as camping trips grew into decades of summers at Spring Creek Resort in Almont, first as guests, then as caretakers, and finally, in 1986, as owners. For twenty summers, Dee ran the Resort making many lifelong friends. Children and grandchildren spent their childhood summers working and playing there before the property was eventually developed and sold.

Ron's passion for hunting took the couple across the globe, Spain, New Zealand, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and beyond, with Dee behind the camera as often as the rifle. Her own "biblical tour," as she called it, unfolded over three trips: first to Israel, Egypt, and the Sinai, where she was baptized a second time in the Jordan River; then to Greece, the Greek Isles; and finally, to England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Ron was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in his later years. Dee cared for him faithfully until his death on March 9, 2017. Dee herself weathered a heart attack and cardiac surgery that same year, but returned to the things she loved: church, bridge, bingo, family cards, and sport games. She was a loyal and avid fan of the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals, win or lose. Her children, in Dees’ words "took me everywhere" in her final years.

Faith, family, friends, and sports were the constants of Dee's life. She will be deeply missed and forever remembered by all who had the privilege of knowing her.

Dee was preceded in death by her parents, Alfred and Leada Meyers; her brother, Jerry Rae "Ray" Meyers; her first husband, Leslie Wood; and second husband, Ronald Pflumm. She is survived by her four children, Sheri Gallagher, Leslie "Drew" Wood, Tammy Wood, and Lance Wood, and by a large and loving family of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, all of whom she considered her greatest blessing.

Visitation will be held on Thursday, July 23, 2026, between 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm. Funeral service will be held on July 24, 2026, at 10:00 am. Both visitation and service will be at the Shawnee United Methodist Church 10700 Johnson Drive, Shawnee, KS 66203. Burial will immediately follow at Antioch Pioneer Cemetery 7500 Antioch Road, Merriam, KS 66024.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to Shawnee United Methodist Church.