Kari Lee's eyes are smiling

You can take the girl out of the Gallagher, but you can't take the Gallagher out of the girl.

Kari Lee Knierim – born and raised a Glasgow Gallagher before marrying husband David and taking on his last name – is so glad to be Irish that she's known for it across the United States. Across oceans, too.

Kari Lee's been mass mailing homemade St. Patrick's Day cards for about 20 years now and sent 250 this year alone.

It's in her blood, the giving of the green.

“Yes, I do take pride in my Irish heritage,” she says. “I inherited that from my grandfather (Edward Gallagher). On St. Patrick's Day, he'd get dressed up in a suit, a white shirt, a green tie and a hat, and he'd give us money. He was great at giving us 2 dollar bills.”

Kari Lee's cards go to friends, family and others she's met over the years. Her long-distance dedication this year includes two college students who are in Japan. 

“I send cards to people from the tip of Florida to Alaska and from coast to coast,” she says. “I thought I'd stop because stamps are getting so expensive, but I love it.”

This year's cost for printing and postage is about $150 total, with postcard stamps going for 28 cents each. 

The Glasgow High alumna, mother of three and grandmother of seven says her non-Irish husband David is “fine with it” and her children seem to “appreciate it more the older they get, but sometime I think they think I'm crazy for sending out 250 of these cards.”

Some she signs, simply, with “Kari.” Others she “signs” with a smiley face, whether the recipient knows the card is from her or not. Seems she just wants to spread some Irish love, right?

“That's exactly right,” she says.

Others return the affection. St. Patrick's Day gifts that she has received include green carnations and Irish flags, lights, Santa figures, aprons, socks, balloons and sunglasses. She displays a lot of it in the rural Fort Peck farm home that she and David share.

These days, Kari Lee is a twice-a-week cook at Prairie Ridge Village in Glasgow. She retired three years ago after 30 years with Valley County government in the Extension office and as board secretary for the airport commission and 911 and refuse boards.

Cooking she likes. During her county courthouse years, St. Patrick's Day was a time for her to treat staff to an  authentic Irish meal of corned beef, cabbage, Irish potatoes, Irish soda bread and Blarney Stone cookies.

This year, she'll be out of Valley County on the big day, visiting Chico Hot Springs Resort and Day Spa near Yellowstone National Park. She's a board member for the FMDH Foundation, which will meet there.

“I know for sure that I'll have a junior Jameson's (Irish whiskey),”she says. “I don't drink green beer. It's for amateurs.”

Kari Lee's card tradition begins every January, when she looks for a new message to inscribe. Sometime they're jokes, sometime blessings. She says this year's is a blessing from a “little book of Irish prayers that I have.”

Here it is:

May you always walk in sunshine,

May you never want for more,

May Irish angels rest their wings

right beside your door.

As for jokes that have graced her cards, here's one. Kari Lee doesn't quite remember the exact words but says it “was about dying and hoping the Lord meets you before the devil does.”

Now for some Kari Lee trivia that might surprise you.

She sends cards to other countries – but not Ireland.

“You know, I don't do that,” she says. “They don't need a card. They know what day it is.”

She's never been to the Emerald Isle, either.

“It's on my bucket list,” she says. “I want to go.”

Orrdinary People appears in the Glasgow Courier. Please suggest special people to Jim Orr at 228-9301 or publisher@glasgowcourier.com.