Norma (Duffy) Lyon, the ‘Butter-Cow Lady,’ Dies at 81

[sufrommich]

Norma (Duffy) Lyon, a self-described dairy farmer’s wife and mother of nine who achieved fame well beyond the Midwest as the “Butter-Cow Lady” of the Iowa State Fair, sculpturing tons of U.S. Grade AA salted butter each year into life-size figures of cows, famous people and, once, a diorama of the Last Supper, died on Sunday in Marshalltown, Iowa. She was 81.


Norma "Duffy" Lyon stands next to a life-size dairy cow she sculpted from butter at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa in 2003.
Her family said the apparent cause was a stroke.

Ms. Lyon’s sculpture reached a vast audience during her lifetime, partly because she worked not just in Iowa but also at state fairs throughout rural America, and partly because the idea of a butter sculptor from Iowa was just irresistible to television people in the big city.

She appeared on “Today” and “The Tonight Show.” On “Late Night With David Letterman” in 1984, she showed up with a small cheddar-cheese version of her butter cow — to make it easier to carry, she said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/28/us/28lyon.html?_r=1&smid=tw-nytimes&seid=auto
I always loved those butter sculptures.

[RamboLiberal]

1. K&R - She was an Obama supporter-campaign sought her out

During the last presidential election season, Mrs. Lyon made a 23-pound butter bust of then-candidate Barack Obama.

At a campaign stop in Iowa, Mrs. Lyon presented the sculpture to Obama, who said to her that his ears appeared too big.

Mrs. Lyon insisted that as much as she liked him, her artwork had to be true to form.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/butter-sculptor-norma-duffy-lyons-bovine-creations-drew-millions-to-iowa-state-fair/2011/06/27/AGF6yAoH_story.html

[Jankyn]

2. Oh, no.

The Iowa State Fair won't be the same without her. I always enjoyed stopping by to see the butter cow--and to find out what else she'd made. It was always something different each year. Her butter cow and the biggest hog in the state were the two things I never missed (oh, and the funnel cakes).

[progressoid]

3. If memory serves me, I think she picked a successor a couple years ago.

edit: Here's what I was thinking about. Sarah Pratt (her granddaughter) is still doing it.



http://www.iowafarmertoday.com/articles/2006/08/11/top_stories/02butter.txt

DES MOINES -- Forgive Sarah Pratt if she feels slightly overwhelmed. Sarah, you see, is the new butter cow lady.

For the five or six people in Iowa who aren’t familiar with the butter cow, here’s a quick primer: For nearly a century, dairy producers in the state have sponsored the making of a cow out of butter at the state fair.

For 45 years, that cow and everything from a butter Elvis to a butter Last Supper, has been made by Norma “Duffy” Lyon, a sculptress and dairy farmer from Tama County.

With Duffy’s retirement, Sarah is the new butter sculptress.

“I was half expecting her (Duffy) to just keep on doing it,” Pratt says.