Kidney transplant pioneer, a former Grand Forks resident, dies in Twin Cities During Julie Weighter’s eighth-grade year at St. Mary’s in 1962, she became ill and was diagnosed with renal kidney disease, spending four and a half months in Deaconess Hospital in Grand Forks. 2:00 pm, Feb. 19, 2021 × Julie Weighter GRAND FORKS — Julie Weighter, one of the world's first to survive a kidney transplant, continued defying convention until her death at age 72 on Feb. 5, 2021, in St. Louis Park, Minn. Besides the kidney transplant when she was 15, the former Grand Forks, N...