By Heather Lende

Former Haines resident Julie Menaker Shallcross died Oct. 5 in Houma, La. of complications from kidney disease. She was 57 and had been ill two years.

Shallcross lived in Haines more than 20 years, raising three children, volunteering as a Girl Scout leader and Emblem Club member, and working as a hairdresser and owner of JM Creations, a Main Street T-shirt and craft shop.

Natasha Thompson remembered her mother’s humor and creative bursts of energy. "Everything she did, she gave it her all. I remember her sewing or silk screening jerseys for the Fogcutter (softball team) all night long."

Born April 25, 1950 in Vancouver, Wash. to Alaskans Wes and Nedra Waterman, she was raised in Anchorage and on the family mining claims until she was ten and they moved to California.

She attended Tahoe-Truckee High School and in 1968 graduated from Placer High School in Auburn. She met Haines resident David Menaker through mutual friends, and they were wed and returned to Haines in 1973 where they raised three children, and where her family also settled.

She married Michael Shallcross in 1994 and moved to Cave Junction, Ore. where the couple had a gold mine. They also traveled in their motorhome, and enjoyed his children and hers. "She loved her grandbabies" Thompson said. The couple moved to Arizona and then to Louisiana, all the while she made and sold handmade glass jewelry at flea markets, shops, and wholesale.

In addition to her husband, children Natasha Thompson of Anchorage, Katie Menaker of Wasilla, David Menaker of Fairbanks and stepson Patrick Shallcross of Haines survive her, as do sisters Joanne Waterman of Haines and Kathy Withers of Stockton, Calif., grandchildren Cody Menaker, Jamie Edwards and Evan Thompson and niece Army lieutenant Natalie Withers. Her parents preceded her in death.