Before she sang her second song at the 2024 Klondike Kate competition, the event’s emcee asked candidate Jody Vander Hart a question.
The Winter Carnival legend character is inspired by a real person — the notorious Gold Rush entertainer Kathleen Rockwell — so, in her spirit, what’s the most notorious thing Vander Hart has ever done?
“A very wise woman in a boa and feathers once told me, a Klondike Kate is all things to all people all the time,” Vander Hart, of Vadnais Heights, told the crowd of about 400. “So I don’t kiss and tell.”
Then, she belted out a rendition of the Aretha Franklin classic “Chain of Fools.”
That song, plus two others and a pre-competition interview process with judges, earned Vander Hart the role of 2024 Klondike Kate, the Winter Carnival’s “mistress of fun, frivolity and good fellowship.”
Eight women competed for the title on Wednesday, Jan. 10 at Inwood Oaks Event Center in Oakdale, the ballroom formerly known as the Prom Center. A new Kate has been chosen almost every year since 1971.
Two contestants — Vander Hart and crowd favorite Kat Connery, of Robbinsdale — also competed last year, when Maret Bylander was ultimately chosen as the 2023 Kate.
Competition newcomers had the audience grooving, too. Recent Minnesota transplant Kira Sable made the final three, and Ame’ Jo Peach was vying for the title in memory of her late mother, who had also dreamed of becoming Klondike Kate. She got soulful during an impressive first-round performance of “River” by Bishop Briggs.
Rounding out the group of competitors included Janine Renslow of Big Lake, Bonnie Lopez of West St. Paul, Star Grigsby of Highland Park and Ruby Ericson of White Bear Lake.
Although they’re commonly seen performing in ensembles, Klondike Kates tend to have their own musical stylings. Some lean disco; others polka. One former Kate accompanies her own singing on ukulele. In 2023, Bylander won over judges with burlesque classics. Vander Hart, who stunned with Alicia Keys and Nina Simone covers last year, leans R&B.
Vander Hart has sung in several choral groups, including the Sweet Adelines and Triple Trio, and has been attending Carnival events since she was a child in St. Paul, she said.
