Bill Kline really wanted to be a stand-up comic. Instead, he opened one of Denver’s first upscale kitchen stores: Kitchens by Kline.
Bill Kline died June 18 from complications after surgery. He was 84.
A memorial service will be at 4 p.m. Aug. 12 at the Newman Center on the University of Denver campus.
Kline’s upscale store in Cherry Creek North catered to hundreds of people wanting to upgrade kitchen cabinets or totally remodel. Even in 1979, a remodel could cost $55,000, according to a story about Kline in The Denver Post that year.
When people asked about costs, Kline usually said it would cost the same as an automobile. “It depends on whether you want a Volkswagen or a Cadillac.”
Among the kitchens he remodeled were those of Mamie Doud Eisenhower, John Denver, cable magnate Bill Daniels and Supreme Court Justice Byron “Whizzer” White.
Kline hosted famed chef Julia Child in his store and taught her to use the microwave oven, family members said.
Kline “was an amazing person and loved to interact with people,” said a former employee, Kent Barnes, who owns Kitchens of Austin in Texas.
Despite his long career in the kitchen business, Kline always was just a step away from entertaining – either telling stories or impersonating the famous.
“He’d start a story, and it was like he was on stage,” said Barnes. People often said, “Bill, tell them the story about … ”
The theatrics started early. He and his sister, Martha Moore of Englewood, grew up in Nebraska. He had a talent for impersonations, and she played the piano and taught tap dance.
They’d go to country fairs and perform their acts. “Bill usually came in first and won $10, and I came in second and won $5,” said Moore.
Hosting a radio show in Hastings, Neb., helped Kline pay his way through college, said longtime friend Rita Higgins.
Kline’s mother wrote down jokes she heard famous entertainers tell on the radio and gave them to Kline and he’d use them, said Kline’s daughter Kathy Kline of Bellevue, Wash.
He was entertaining even when selling ideas to customers, said former employee Kathy Dulacki. In retirement, he often performed for local clubs and at nursing homes.
Charles W. Kline was born Sept. 1, 1921, in Cambridge, Neb., and graduated from the University of Denver in liberal arts. He served in the Navy and then sold sewing machines, worked at the Orpheum Theater and sold kitchen goods. He started his own kitchen business at his Park Hill home, showing off the kitchen he’d remodeled.
He opened Kitchens by Kline, at East Third Avenue and Clayton Street, in the 1960s and sold it in 1985.
He was married twice. His first wife was Gladys Johanson. They later divorced. He married Wilma Gillespie, who died in 2004.
In addition to his daughter and sister, he is survived by another daughter, Kris Vandette of Bellevue, Wash.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-820-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
