Another brush with greatness.

While attending St Paul Harding High School in the 80s I had no idea I was in a veritable breeding ground of celebrities.

The late comedian Mitch Hedberg graduated a year before I did.

Actress Kelly Carlson didn’t actually attend Harding High but I played was a member of her Dad’s basketball team in 1984-85. Young Kelly, then age 8, would visit her Dad on an occasional Friday evening and enthusiastically cheer on the team.

Now I find that a fellow member of Harding’s class of 1987 has joined the celebrity ranks.


No Winter Carnival would be complete without Klondike Kate, the festival's mistress of fun, frivolity and friendship.

This year, the title goes to St. Paul resident Darice Koepke, who's had her eye on the prize since she was a little girl.

Klondike Kate is modeled after Kathleen Rockwell, who made her way across the mountains to the Yukon and Klondike rivers, as many others did during the Gold Rush of 1898.

Koepke graduated from Harding High School in 1987. "I get to go to our 20-year reunion as Klondike Kate."


I remember Darice well. Even in high school she had a vibrant and rather gregarious personality. In fact, she was one of the few underclassmen in the school’s Concert Choir. She could definitely belt out a tune with the best of ‘em.

Congrats, Darice! We’ll see you at the reunion in September.