Former health secretary Kinsman 'shocked' by SD Hall of Fame selection

For almost 40 years, Watertown native and incoming South Dakota Hall of Fame inductee Kitty Kinsman has played a leading role in bringing long-term health care improvements to South Dakota.

The daughter of Kinsman Insurance founder Earle Kinsman and granddaughter of Brown Clinic founder Dr. H. Russell Brown and former Watertown Fire Rescue Chief Orville Kinsman, Kitty Kinsman, a 1973 Watertown High School graduate, said it took a while for her to find her calling in life.

Describing her formative adult years as “a circuitous path,” Kinsman initially thought her calling was to follow her father in the insurance field.

A short stint as a part-timer at an insurance company taught Kinsman that “was not going to be a pathway for my future.”

Having been inspired by many Watertown figures during her school days at both WHS and Immaculate Conception School, Kinsman found confidence in her hometown while beginning her career at the Watertown Area Chamber of Commerce.

Having a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit, she said she was encouraged by the then-Chamber CEO to to become the first executive director of South Dakota Glacial Lakes Association.

During that tenure from 1979 to 1982, Kinsman finalized her first of what would be many important contributions to the state. In order to drum up tourism over a three-day weekend, the state tourism industry sought to make Memorial Day a Monday holiday recognized by the state.

Story via Watertown Public Opinion