Jody Waters was a longtime Boulder resident, but not of the tie-dyed, Birkenstock-wearing type.
The 65-year-old businesswoman, who was one of 10 people shot and killed at a King Soopers on Monday, is remembered for her sense of style and fashion. She worked in and owned boutiques on Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall.
Jeff Shapiro, who owned a store on the downtown mall for several years, said he and his wife Melissa got to know Waters.
“She came in and shopped with us. We shopped with her,” Shapiro said.
He was originally from Illinois, and so was Waters. And they have children who are about the same age; he said she has two daughters.
Shapiro said Island Farm, the women’s boutique where Waters worked, was one of the premier spots on the mall. And Waters was a favorite among shoppers, with many of them seeing her as a friend, he added.
“It sounds like a cliche, but she would light up a room,” Shapiro said.
Waters’ family said in a statement that she was a taskmaster who led by example, a creative with “an unmatched work ethic.” She often could be found hiking in Boulder with her two rescue dogs.
“Central to all was her family to whom she dedicated her life – two daughters, Alex and Channing, son-in-law Corey, her lifelong friend and former spouse Chuck, and most recently, her young grandson Everett, who she called the ‘light of her life,'” the statement said. “We will miss her deeply.”
State Rep. Judy Amabile, whose Boulder district includes the King Soopers, knew Waters and honored her on the floor of the Colorado House of Representatives on Tuesday.
“I know her from a store on the Pearl Street Mall where I shop,” Amabile told The Denver Post, adding that Waters “was just super energetic and nice and fun.” The politician told MSNBC that she got to know Waters in the early 1990s while shopping in Applause, a store Waters owned on the Boulder mall.
“All of the moms in my demographic, we all went there,” Amabile said. “She was just super personable. You went there once and she asked you your name. Every time you ever went back, she knew your name and she knew something about you.
“She was just one of those people who really had a lot of heart and was genuine in the way she talked to you and how she felt about people,” Amabile added.
High school friends in Barrington, Ill., recalled their classmate on an alumni Facebook page, the Daily Herald newspaper in suburban Chicago reported Wednesday. Blair Corbett wrote in a post that he was “saddened to inform the group of the sudden passing of our ’73 alumni Jody Waters, a victim of the senseless mass shooting in Boulder.”
Connecticut resident Andrew Lifshin told the Daily Herald that he was friends with Waters when they were classmates at Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire, now a university. He said she was “beautiful and approachable.”
“Jody reminded me of a flower girl from the sixties. Easy going, free spirited, up for anything,” Lifshin said.
Denver Post reporter Alex Burness contributed to this report.
