When Kimberly Perkins came to Salt Lake City in 1989 to investigate a job possibility, she had never been to the Mountain West. It was November, and she was stunned by the white-capped mountains and the crystal-clear blue sky.
"There were vestiges of green in downtown Salt Lake City," says Perkins, "and I was totally enchanted. I was like a young woman falling in love. I said, 'I want this job!' "That is not to say she has forgotten about the charm of her childhood in Connecticut and Vermont. "If you've lived in New England, you carry a piece of it with you always." So she strategically scatters pictures of Vermont's rolling countrysides and little red barns around her new home in Deer Valley.
Perkins' college years were spent at Connecticut's Middlebury College and New York's Cornell University. A child psychology major, she worked for the college radio station during the day and tended bar at night.
After taking some communications courses, she realized she loved broadcasting more than child psychology.
Besides, she is, as she says, "a social creature, a bit of a talker, innately nosey, and likes to ask questions." So when she graduated from Cornell, she took a radio job for $10,000 a year doing morning drive-time news and a little talk show called "Ithaca Today."
"I'm sure if I heard any of the tapes now I'd be mortified." From there, she worked in "a teeny, tiny PBS TV station" in upstate New York until she was recruited by the CBS station across town in Binghamton.
Finally, she accepted an anchor job on "PM Magazine" in Rochester, N.Y. It was a big leap, but she loved it.
Before she came West, she was a morning anchor for KDKA in Pittsburgh -- "a minor role in a major market." When Salt Lake's KTVX-Ch. 4 contacted her, she was "absolutely not looking for work."
"It was a wonderful example of how opportunity can strike when you're not looking for it," says Perkins.
After almost 11 years as co-anchor of the afternoon and evening news on Ch. 4, she is happier than she has ever been and gives no thought to moving on. She enjoys working with Randall Carlisle and considers him both "a giving anchor and a good friend."
Perkins is very active in the community, her primary commitment being to the YWCA and the Battered Women's Shelter, where she serves on the board of directors.
After a divorce several years ago, she married her "soul mate," Skip Klintworth, who runs a medical supply business in Park City. "When we met, we connected so instantly that we were engaged eight weeks after our first date."
They have been together two years. Perkins' daughter, Katelyn, and her son, John, are in fifth and third grades, respectively. Although Klintworth's two high-school-age daughters, Kelly and Brittany, live with their mother in California, they visit their dad frequently.
Perkins believes her anchor job is "one of the coolest in the country. I can't think of a city I'd rather live in, or a job I'd rather have."
When she is not on TV, Perkins often dresses casually. "I've never felt that I can't be me -- sweats, no makeup, hair in a ponytail. That's who I am, and if I'm running errands or volunteering at the school, that's the way I look."
As the longest-running anchor in Ch. 4's history, she realizes she is pushing the age envelope in an appearance-oriented business. Glamorous at 40, she is in no hurry to step down, and she thinks the networks' older women such as Barbara Walters have paved the way for local women.
"We're the test generation and we also work the remote control. I don't know a lot of people in their 40s who prefer someone who is 21 or 22 to do the news."
Perkins thinks that the next 10 years will reveal how long women anchors stay on the air. "You can look great and be 50. I can think of a lot of women who are more beautiful at 50 than they were at 30."
Perkins goes into the TV station usually in late afternoon, then drives home to Deer Valley after the broadcast at 11 p.m. If she is lucky, she is in bed by 12:30, then rises at 7:30 to have breakfast with her family.
Driving down the canyon, she catches up on the news with KSL Radio, then on the way up the canyon, she listens to books on tape. She especially enjoys biographies and recently finished Leslie Stahl's "Reporting Live."
Perkins thinks of herself as "a '90s feminist who tries to be feminine in every way."
She thinks women have proved they can balance marriage and career. "You can do it all, but you've got to realize there are certain prices to pay, and you can't do it all perfectly."