Katie Shalin was an actress and a teacher who had the ability to see the best in her students and family.
“She was larger than life; a real firecracker,” said husband Thomas Shalin.
Never afraid to break into show tunes at a moment’s notice, “she was made for the stage.”
From the time she performed in her first play, “The Fabulous Fable Factory” at 8 years old, she knew she wanted to be an actress.
Shalin graduated from Cedar Shoals High School in Athens in 1990 and was a part of the Athens Creative Theatre. She continued her education, receiving her bachelor’s degree in theater arts from Brandeis University in 1994 and her master’s degree in fine arts from the University of California San Diego in 1998.
In 2005, Katie joined the Cobb County Center for the Performing Arts at Pebblebrook High School as an acting teacher.
“She saw a lot of herself in her students,” said Thomas Shalin.
She was artistic and had a knack for getting along with teens who didn’t fit into the norm, her mother, Linda Grant said. She accepted and embraced them, “she knew what it felt like,” her husband added.
Shalin also knew what it was like to follow her dreams. She encouraged her students to do the same.
She fostered her passion for drama and acting in her teaching. Many students have taken to online outlets to express appreciation and tell how they took the lessons they learned in her class and apply them in their life today, Thomas Shalin said.
Katherine Mills Grant Shalin of Marietta died Sept. 25 of cancer. She was 42. A memorial service will be 2 p.m. Friday at St. James Episcopal Church, 161 Church St., Marietta. Mayes Ward-Dobbins Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Not only was Shalin a teacher and an actress, she was also a playwright. Her 2012 play “Swimming with Jellyfish” was performed at the Art Place in Marietta and at Actor’s Express in Atlanta as a part of the Essential Theatre’s 2013 Summer Play Festival.
As an actress she had a number of television and stage credits including a guest appearance on “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne.”
“She was never afraid to try new things; she was daring” said Grant, her mother, who also said Shalin was a wonderful mother and teacher: “She transpired all she was into her students and sons.”
In addition to her husband and mother, Shalin is survived by sons Owen Grant Shalin and Theodore Henry Shalin of Marietta; father and stepmother, William R. Grant and Ellen G. Grant of Alpharetta; sister Elizabeth Grant of Athens; brothers Mitchell Grant of Boston and Rees Grant of Alpharetta, and her grandmother, Alice C. Mills, of Athens.
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