Kathy Kinney visited with Sleepy Eye ONLINE at Sportsman’s Park Sunday afternoon

Kathy Kinney and Dee Dee (Sellner) Fried

By Shari Hittesdorf
It’s a small world.

That’s exactly what Dee Dee (Sellner) Fried thought when she met Kathy Kinney on the Drew Carey Show during its first episode, way back in 1995.

Dee Dee is a Sleepy Eye native who was the costume supervisor on that famous sitcom that ran on ABC from 1995-2004.
Kathy was the actress who played “Mimi”, that made-up, flamboyant, nemesis of the main character Drew Carey.

The two introduced themselves back stage as the inaugural episode was being taped, and when the town of Sleepy Eye was mentioned they both started jumping up and down.

“We were supposed to be quiet because they were taping but we started screaming and yelling,” said Kathy.

Dee Dee is the daughter of Phyllis Sellner and Jim Sellner who both still live in Sleepy Eye. Kathy is the daughter of Marian Gray, who grew up and graduated from Sleepy Eye High School.

Kathy remembers coming to town every summer to visit her grandparents, Ida and Roy Gray.

Dee and Kathy decided then and there that someday they would road trip it back to Sleepy Eye.
That “someday” came 18 years later.

Kathy had been invited to Minnetonka to promote her web site (www.mrsp.com – devoted to getting children interested in literacy), a character called Mrs. P, and a writing contest called “Mrs. P’s 5th Annual ‘Be a Famous Writer contest.’

“I said I would come but I wanted to come later because I live in California and I wanted to see leaves,” Kathy said. “Growing up here, I really miss autumn. Like other people crave candy bars or a hamburger, I crave autumns.”

“So I called Dee Dee up right away and said I had to go to Minn-E-tonka (as she pronounced), do you want to meet me there?” continued Kathy.”

Earlier this week “Mrs. P” (Kathy) made the rounds to several Twin Cities schools. Dee Dee met up with her Friday and the two went to Mystic Lake to see their friend and former cast member of The Drew Carey Show, Craig Ferguson perform.
Then Dee Dee and Kathy made their way down Hwy. 169. An unexpected stop at Jim’s Apple Barn and the tiny town of Blakeley delayed their arrival time, but finally they made it to Sleepy Eye Saturday afternoon.

The two did some exploring around town during their stay, including trying to figure out which house Kathy had visited as a child. It took a call to the Sleepy Eye Depot Museum and a conversation with Director Debbie Joramo and life-long community resident Judy Beech along with a stop at the Brown Co. Historical Museum to get an idea of just where Kathy’s grandparents lived.

At the Brown Co. Historical Museum, Kathy said they talked to a woman who had the white pages from 1965 and she was able to look up the address: 621 South Fourth Street.

Kathy struggled to figure out exactly where her grandparents resided because streets in Sleepy Eye were renamed in the late 60’s so 4th Street no longer existed. She believes, however, it was on what is now 2nd Ave SE near the Sleepy Eye Family Aquatic Center. Kathy did remember walking out the front door and seeing a field; a softball field sat on that corner before the original swimming pool was built. She also recalled going to a park (South Park.)

Kathy’s father met her mother while working at the “canning factory.”

“That was during the Depression, my father would ride the rails from canning factory to canning factory, looking for work.” Said Kathy.

He had stopped for a stint at Del Monte. After the two were married, they moved to Steven’s Point Wisconsin, which is where Kathy was born and raised.

Kathy doesn’t do a lot of acting right now. She is busy with her web site (www.mrsp.com) and being a reading advocate for children.

Kathy admits, “I’m not bragging but I really lead the life.”

“Everything I have is because of what I read,” said Kathy. “I wasn’t reading Stephen Hawking, I was reading trash but it exercised my mind and it made it possible for me to think of what kind of life I wanted to live.”

She has authored (along with a college friend) two self-help type books, “Queen of Your Own Life: The Grown-up Women’s Guide to Claiming Happiness” and “Getting the Life You Deserve”.

Kathy also has a hobby in which she (along with her friend) posts daily jolts of inspiration for women on a facebook page (www.facebook.com/QueenofYourOwnLife)

“Every day we post a positive affirmation and a vintage image,” said Kathy. “Read it, change your day, go.”

“We stopped in this little town called Blakeley on their way to Sleepy Eye, and they had an antique store, I collect antique images,” Kathy explained. “And there were gorgeous photos from the 30’s. I called my writing partner to tell her I scored a bunch of images in Blakeley for us to post.”

The memories of her time in Sleepy Eye slowly came back to Kathy. She remembers going to an A&W root beer place and she recalls seeing the name Soukup on her mom’s grade school book.

“It was her name, and then 10 Soukup names listed below,” laughed Kathy.

Funny what gets stored in our memories from our childhood….funny just how small a world it really is.

As for the actual location of where Kathy used to come and visit when she was a little girl….well, when I started putting this story together, memories from my childhood started coming back to me. Turns out Kathy’s grandparents lived right across the alley from where I grew up. At that time it was my brother’s best friend’s house, a house I had been inside many times.
The house no longer exists but the address is 200 Burnside SE.

Small world, indeed.

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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED March 2011

Anyone who has heard Tricia Erickson talking with Jon Jahnke on SAM 107.3 radio’s Morning Mess knows when it comes to NASCAR,
she knows her stuff. One could even say Tricia is Sleepy Eye’s foremost NASCAR expert. Tricia would argue against that. She says there are other people around here who know more about the sport than she does. Tricia just happens to be the one talking about it on the radio.

“(The guest spot on the Morning Mess) started when Jon would come out here (to Miller Sellner Implement where Tricia works) and we’d talk about racing,” Tricia explained. “He suggested I come on his show on Mondays and chat. It is a lot of fun to recap the races and give my opinion. The good thing about radio is no one can talk back to you. That’s good because there are a lot of opinions about NASCAR out there different than mine!”

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