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Last update: January 18, 2005 at 10:08 AM
Tragic end for Como Park wedding guest
Matt McKinney
Star Tribune
Published January 18, 2005

It was well past dark and the temperature was
plummeting when Kathryn Gates arrived at the Como Park
Conservatory.

Invited to a friend's wedding celebration there, she
aimed her motorized scooter at a door she thought was
the entrance.

It wasn't. Gates had gone to a locked door to a
building not yet open to the public and some distance
from the main entrance.

Maintenance staff found her frozen body near the door
Sunday morning close to her scooter.
Friends said Monday that Gates, 49, had been
struggling with muscular dystrophy for many years and
was unable to stand on her own.

She had fallen off of her cart while crossing the
lobby of her apartment building on Friday night, said
neighbor Charles Dawson. Someone had to call 911 for
her and firefighters lifted her back into her chair,
he said.

Gates could walk on her own when she first moved into
the Minneapolis public housing apartments some 10
years ago, said her neighbor Rudy Schumann. He knew
her as a former schoolteacher when she first moved in.


Her disease gradually made it more difficult to get
around, he said. She started to fall often and gained
weight. She traded her walker for a motorized cart.
Lately, she stayed in her room most of the time, he
said.

"She was getting to the point that she couldn't even
hold her head up," said Schumann, who lives in her
Franklin Avenue apartment building.

Police said Gates arrived about 7 p.m. Saturday by
taxi for the wedding.

The wedding party assumed that she couldn't make it
when she didn't arrive, according to St. Paul police
spokesman Paul Schnell.

The cause of death was not immediately determined. The
Ramsey County medical examiner's office is expected to
do an autopsy today.

Police said the sidewalk approaching the door where
she was found is wide and clear of ice and obstacles,
but she might have encountered trouble if she tried to
cut across frozen ground to reach the main door.

Her body was found about 9 a.m. Sunday. The
temperature at the time was 7 below and had been below
zero all night. Her oxygen tank also was found nearby.

Staff writer Donna Halvorsen contributed to this
report.
Matt McKinney is at mckinney@startribune.com<<