Kitty Rhoades

Kitty Rhoades (née Richie) (April 7, 1951 – June 18, 2016) was an American politician. She was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly who represented the 30th Assembly district and subsequently served as Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

Born in Hudson, Wisconsin, Rhoades received a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin–River Falls and a master's degree from Illinois State University. Rhoades was an educator, small business owner, and consultant. In 1998, she was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly as a Republican.

In the 1990s, Rhoades proposed the term Winnesota to describe Wisconsin's St. Croix and Pierce Counties, which border Minnesota and are within the U.S. Census Bureau's Minneapolis-Saint Paul Metropolitan Area. According to Rhoades, "I still call my area Winnesota. We are in Wisconsin, but it sure is hard to remember it."

Rhoades retired from the state Assembly in 2010, and took a position with the administration of Gov. Scott Walker in 2011 as Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health Services. Following the resignation of Dennis Smith, she was appointed Secretary. Rhoades died on June 18, 2016, in Madison, Wisconsin from pneumonia.

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