Kathleen Rockwell
American entertainer (1880–1957)
Kathleen Eloise Rockwell (October 4, 1873/1876/1880 (year of birth disputed) – February 21, 1957), known as "Klondike Kate" and later known as Kate Rockwell Warner Matson Van Duren, was an American dancer and vaudeville star during the Klondike Gold Rush, where she met Alexander Pantages who later became a very successful vaudeville/motion picture mogul. She garnered notoriety for her flirtatious dancing and ability to keep hard-working miners happy if not inebriated. Before her death she appeared on the television show You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx December 23, 1954, at the age of 74. She died in obscurity after some minor success training Hollywood starlets in the 1940s.
Biography
Rockwell was born in Junction City, Kansas, according to her death certificate, and lived in North Dakota for a while but grew up in Spokane, Washington.
Her stepfather was wealthy and provided her with French, voice, and instrumental lessons.
Her parents sent Rockwell to several boarding schools, but Rockwell was expelled from the various institutions.
In the 1890s, after divorcing her second husband, Rockwell's mother moved with her to New York City. Here the younger Rockwell made an unsuccessful attempt at show business. She left for greener pastures and arrived in Alaska in 1899.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kathleen Rockwell” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.