By Dan Russo

DUBUQUE, Iowa (CNS) – Kate Mulgrew discovered she had a talent for performance early in life when she read a poem to her class at Resurrection Elementary School in Dubuque.

Her brother Sam, speaking recently at a book signing event at the Julien Hotel in late April in Dubuque, revealed to a crowd of several hundred fans that his sister recited a poem with such intense feeling, it made her teacher, a religious sister, cry.

“She wasn’t the only Mulgrew to make the nuns at Resurrection cry,” Sam Mulgrew joked. His sister, best known for her television roles on “Star Trek: Voyager” and the Netflix series “Orange Is the New Black,” returned to her hometown as part of a tour for the new memoir she has written.

In the book, “Born with Teeth,” Mulgrew details life growing up as one of eight children in an Irish Catholic family. Mulgrew is one of the most famous graduates of Resurrection Elementary School and Wahlert Catholic H.S.

Although she no longer lives in Iowa, Mulgrew still has some connections to Dubuque and the Catholic community there.

Sam Mulgrew lives in the area and works as the business manager for the Trappist Monks’ casket making operation at New Melleray Abbey in Peosta.

Mulgrew said he and his sister sometimes talk about theology and that the faith she was raised in “definitely has had an influence on how she views the world.”