North Hudson woman is Klondike Kate 2009

• Darci Strutt, Klondike Kate 2009

Darci Strutt beams with joy after being named Klondike Kate of the 2009 St. Paul Winter Carnival. Photo by Peter Worth, St. Paul Winter Carnival volunteer photographer

Talk about it

Darci Strutt certainly has a fitting last name for the title. Last week, the North Hudson woman earned the right to be Klondike Kate of the 2009 St. Paul Winter Carnival. She'll spend the next year in the role of the risque dance hall queen, serving as the carnival's "mistress of fun, frivolity and good fellowship."

It isn't a role that comes naturally to Strutt, a 48-year-old data security specialist for U.S. Bank by day - as well as a wife, mother and Bible study leader at Hudson United Methodist Church.

"I teach a Bible study class, but that's only on Tuesdays and on Wednesdays I sing saloon songs," she joked during a visit to the Star-Observer office last Thursday afternoon.

She had out-sung and out-strutted five other women to win the title of Klondike Kate the night before in a competition at the Prom Center in Oakdale, Minn.

Among the 350 to 400 people in attendance were a dozen or more of her church friends and the North Hudson Pepper Festival royalty.

For more information see the Jan. 15 edition of the Star-Observer.

Tags: news, north_hudson, darci, strutt, klondike, kate