KLONDIKE KATES BIOGRAPHIES

ELIZABETH F. MANBECK

1992 KLONDIKE KATE (Click on Photo to Enlarge)

Liz was born in Fargo North Dakota, but did not live there long.  Her first year was spent running around the West states with her Mom and Dad because he was in the Service. 

Liz grew up in Waterloo, Iowa and came to Minnesota about two years after graduating from high school, so figures she is truly from Minneapolis.  She developed a great passion for “Piano Bars,” of which there was almost one on every corner of the city then.  Her favorites were The North Star Piano Bar - where she met many of her lifetime friends - the Normandy and a place in St. Paul called the Manor.  Many nights at the Manor, a group of women dressed in satin, feathers and boas would stop in to sing after a gig somewhere.  They were called The Klondike Kates and they just had great fun doing their thing!!  Liz admired them and figured she would love to sing like that too, but since she was a single parent to her delightful son, Chad, she knew that she could not give up as much time as it sounded like they gave.  So she waited a few years, but watched and learned the songs and the way they strutted their stuff at the piano bar.  In 1989, she decided it was the year to try out.  What a hoot it was!  She made it to the final three contestants, but lost to Nancy Hotinger who had tried out for four years before that.  Liz made up her mind that she would win the next year!  Well, she finally won in 1992, the year of the marvelous Ice Palace and Super Bowl.  What an experience all this was!  She will never forget the fireworks display going off over the Palace while it was lit for the first time (Awesome) and the dog races on Lake Phalen. She also admired the large chocolate football in the lobby of the Radisson Hotel every time she went through the lobby.

The statement, "Once a Kate always a Kate," has remained true for Liz - who is now the President of the Royal Order of The Klondike Kates.  It seems each year the requests for the Klondike Kates just get more and more frequent.

Liz works for Hennepin County as a Senior Community Health Worker, mainly with seniors, providing services that help them remain in their homes rather than putting them in nursing homes.  She has purchased a home in Burnsville, MN and hopes to not have to move again!