Point Reyes Light - April 8, 2004
Designer Jill Whitcroft, 47, 'lived true to her soul'
By Larken Bradley
Longtime Bolinas resident Jill Whitcroft, a former theatrical costume designer and a creative force in the community who once led a movement to establish an alternative local money system called Sand Dollars, died at home Monday, April 5, of complications from colon cancer. She was 47.
In her position as development director for the Bolinas Community Center, Ms. Whitcroft founded the town’s annual Art and Garden show, now in its fifth year.
Before becoming ill she served as editor of the Wednesday edition of the Hearsay News.
Baby born a Valentine
A native of Northern Ireland, as a young woman she traveled the world working all sorts of jobs, including tulip picking in Holland. "She was a Jill of all trades," said friend Jocelyn Poulin of Oakland.
"Jill was an extremely adventurous soul," added longtime travel companion Jenna Mitchell, who came to the US with Ms. Whitcroft from England.
After giving birth on Valentine’s Day to her son, Oliver Whitcroft, now 13, her life took a stabilizing and happy turn, friends said. She had always wanted to have a child. Once Oliver was born she softened and settled down. Oliver’s father Ron Brown, also of Bolinas, is active in his son’s life.
Born on Nov. 3, 1956, in Portadown, Ireland, Ms. Whitcroft lived her first five years in Nairobi, Kenya, where her Irish father and Welsh mother had met at their jobs with the Public Works Department.
Her family eventually returned to Ireland, where Jill’s father died when she was 11 years old. The family then moved to her mother’s native Wales.
While still in her teens Ms. Whitcroft began globetrotting – first to Afghanistan, then the US, and back to England. She lived in Paris for three years, working as an English teacher there.
In 1981 she and Jenna Mitchell flew to New York, hitchhiked to Seattle and on to San Francisco, under the influence of Ken Kesey’s Sometimes a Great Notion, which described a San Francisco that had already vanished before they arrived.
On arrival they were plunked down at 2 a.m. in the city’s unseemly Tenderloin District, but escaped unscathed.
In San Francisco Ms. Whitcroft started a dressmaking business, working as a costume designer for several theater companies including the Pickle Family Circus, the Eureka Theater Company and the San Francisco Opera.
Always a flair
In 1997 she earned a bachelor’s degree in humanities from New College of California.
Wherever she resided, whether in a Mission District apartment or a modest Bolinas abode, she imprinted her artistic signature on each living space.
"Everything about her oozed creativity," said Poulin. To one San Francisco landlord’s chagrin, she painted the outside of the apartment building in huge pink polka dots.
At one time her car was a Plymouth Barracuda with the top missing. Its backseat had been replaced by a dinghy, complete with oars.
A later vehicle was an old US Postal Service jeep, which she painted in a black-and-white checkerboard motif and decorated with plastic flowers.
Her fashion style was no less expressive. She was known to coordinate hot-pink anklets with matching bracelets. "The more glittery the better," Poulin said.
Determined and always certain of her opinions, "she really filled a room," Poulin added.
"She lived her life the way she wanted to live it," Poulin said. "She lived true to her soul."
In the final months of her illness Ms. Whitcroft’s sometimes tough personality softened, friends remarked.
She is survived by her son, Oliver Whitcroft of Bolinas; mother, Dorothy Whitcroft of Hayward’s Heath, West Sussex, England; and her brothers, Jonathan Whitcroft of Brighton, England; and Jeremy Whitcroft of Bristol, England.
A graveside memorial ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. Monday, April 12, at the Bolinas Cemetery.
The community is invited to a celebration of life at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 18, at the Bolinas Community Center.
The family has suggested that any memorial contributions be made to the Oliver K. Whitcroft Educational Fund, c/o Molly Brown, PO Box 809, Bolinas 94924.