Norma Lyon, better known throughout the Midwest as “The Butter-Cow Lady,” died Sunday at the age of 81 at her home in Marshalltown, Iowa. Lyon had been one of the dairy industry’s most famous champions, having become the official sculptor of the Iowa State Fair Butter Cow in 1960. She went on sculpting in butter for five decades, expanding her repertoire beyond the bovine in 1984 when she began unveiling annual homages to pop-culture figures like John Wayne, Garth Brooks, the Peanuts, and Tiger Woods. She briefly came out of retirement in 2007 to endorse Barack Obama for president (some credit her radio spot with helping him win Iowa in the caucuses) and to sculpt a figure of the man himself out of 23 pounds of butter. Her masterwork, however, remains her Butter Last Supper, sculpted for the 1999 fair. [NYT]
