Whitefish selects Prime Minister, Dutchess

Whitefish has crowned the first round of royalty that will serve during this year’s Winter Carnival. At the annual Merry Maker event Saturday, Aric King was named Prime Minister and his wife, Katie King, was named Dutchess of Lark.

The couple own and operate Aric King’s Whitefish Goldsmiths in downtown Whitefish.

Aric is the son of Whitefish natives Sharon Hedman and Jim King. He was raised in the Spokane area and made frequent trips to Whitefish to visit both sets of grandparents. Those trips and his family ties brought Aric to Whitefish permanently in 1982. He met his wife, Katie Webster, while working at the Palace bar in 1984; they married in 1985.

The couple have two grown sons, Joshua and Jesse.

After working a short while in sales for Stuart Milter of Stuarts jewelers, Aric apprenticed under local jeweler Murphy McMahon at L’Or jewelers.   He opened his own business in 1988. 

Aric has worked behind the scenes for the Winter Carnival, providing the High Ullr Award pins, donating items to the various auctions and even parking cars at last years King Ullr reception.

Katie King is a Whitefish native and fourth-generation Montanan and Whitefish Native. She remembers watching the Winter Carnival parade from her grandparents’ home every year of her childhood.

She grew up fishing, boating, and snowmobiling with her parents, Louis and Geneva Webster, and her five brothers and sisters.

After graduating from Whitefish High School in 1984, she took art classes and also learned jewelry making with her husband. Katie is also  a watercolor artist specializing in nature paintings.

She has been a Viking Diva for four years and has assisted with the Winter Carnival for almost 20 years.