Kathleen Anne Blatz (born July 22, 1954) is a former Minnesota judge and legislator. She served as the interim chair of the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority, which governs the U.S. Bank Stadium.

Early life and education

Blatz was born in Minneapolis to Kaye and Jerome Blatz. She attended high school at the Academy of Holy Angels in Richfield, Minnesota, and received her B.A. summa cum laude from the University of Notre Dame. Blatz received degrees from the University of Minnesota Law School and the University of Minnesota School of Social Work.

Career

Blatz served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1979 to 1994. When elected, she was the youngest ever female Minnesota legislator. She was appointed a Hennepin County district court judge in 1994, an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court on November 1, 1996, and Chief Justice on January 29, 1998. She retired from the court on January 10, 2006, and was succeeded as Chief Justice by Russell A. Anderson.

Personal life

Blatz is the daughter of the late Mary Kathleen "Kaye" McMahon Blatz (1926–1996) and Jerome Blatz (1923–2009). She was the second of nine children. On June 2, 1984, in Hennepin County, she married Thomas R. Berkelman, a Minnesota State Legislator from 1977 to 1983. They had three sons and divorced around 2000. She married Wheelock Whitney Jr., a businessman and politician, in 2005. He died in 2016.