Julienne Weighter, two-time kidney transplant recipient, dies at 72 By Patrick Kennedy, Star Tribune February 13, 2021 — 3:33pm Text size Copy shortlink: Weighter, of St. Louis Park, died of pancreatic cancer Feb. 5. She was 72. She was born in Grand Forks, N.D., the last of Edmund and Evelyn Weighter's seven children. At 14, she was diagnosed with kidney disease, but doctors in North Dakota had limited options to treat her. She needed a kidney transplant. But in 1963, there were only three U.S. cities where the surgery was done — Denver, Boston and Richmond, Va. The plight of the "pretty high school cheerleader" attracted the attention of the entire state, including one of North Dakota's senators and its governor. With their help, a military flight for Julie, her mother and a nurse was arranged from the Air Force base in Grand Forks to Richmond, where the surgery was performed at the Medical College of Virginia.