What would the Minnesota State Fair be without butterheads?
Machinery Hill -- or at least its big implements -- is largely
gone, time-worn Heritage Square is being razed, and trans fats
have pretty much gone the way of the Grandstand thrill shows.
But Princess Kay of the Milky Way remains.  Sixty years after
the first Kay was crowned, it's hard to believe there was a time
when the Fair mainstay was untested and dairy marketers relied
on the teenage daughters of dairy farmers to don tiaras, hoop
skirts and high heels in a plan to make dairy glamorous.
Eleanor Maley Thatcher was the first Princess Kay of the Milky
Way, in 1954.  (Pioneer Press file photo)  Today's Princess Kays
spend most of their time visiting K-12 classrooms, teaching high
schoolers in health classes how to make dairy smoothies or
telling kindergartners where milk comes from, said Seena
Glessing, the Midwest Dairy Association's dairy princess
consultant and a Princess Kay finalist in 1999.  Even though
Minnesota isn't tops in dairy product