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Helen Trivia

• She was the only woman running against five men for Pitkin County Commissioner in 1980.• She lived in Aspen for nine years before running for political office.• She started wearing black exclusively when she ran for state Senate in 1986. “It was the nature of the race and the position,” she recalled. “There’s an ease to it. It’s easy to get dressed … and it’s slimming. What else can I say?” • She wore white at her 70th birthday party June 9.• She grew up in Lincoln, Neb., but was born in Kansas City, Mo., at a home for unwed mothers.• She and her sister (not blood-related) are adopted, and both came from the Kansas City home, which burned down decades later. “When I was 5 and a half years old, I went to my grandmother’s when my parents traveled,” Klanderud recalls. “They came back with a baby, and I didn’t know what I thought. I just accepted that I had a sister.”• She went to school with nuns, who eventually told her she was adopted.• She rode an elephant when she was 3 years old in St. Louis but doesn’t remember why.• She traveled with her father on sales calls to beer taverns throughout Nebraska. He was a beer wholesaler. She drank orange soda in the corner while the adults drank beer.• She lives in the same house she moved into when she came to Aspen in 1971.• Her favorite places to go for a drink were the Ute City Banque, the Paragon, the Tippler and Guido’s, all of which are gone. She said the best party she attended as mayor was the opening of the Residences at the St. Regis.