Dairy King of Rock ‘n’ Roll Wows Fair-Goers

DES MOINES — They have seen bearded ladies. They have seen two-headed sheep. They have seen lizard boys and girlie shows and the head that somehow manages to survive without benefit of a body.

But in 139 years of attending their state fair, Iowans have never seen this:

Butter Elvis.

But there he is, a 6-foot replica of the King sculpted in butter. His hand holding a butter microphone, a curly lock of butter hair falling down his forehead, his buttery lips curled and mouth open, he looks ready to sing--A’hm just a hunk-a-hunk-a frozen fat.

“Whenever you mention the Butter Elvis, people go, ‘Say what?’ ” says Kathie Swift, a spokeswoman for the Iowa State Fair. “Then they’ve got to go see him.”

Butter Elvis stands in a refrigerated dairy case in the fair’s Agriculture Building. The line of people waiting to see him stretches past the ice sculptures, past the Iowa Turkey Federation exhibit, past the Iowa Egg Council booth, out beyond the free beef and pork samples. Well-mannered, if not exactly reverent, the people file past Butter Elvis as if viewing the body of a head of state.

“Looks more like a bowlegged cowboy,” says Colleen Nutty of Ames. “Actually, it’s pretty good.”

Others are less generous. Jokesters wonder whose cholesterol level would be worse--this version of Elvis or the real thing? Some figure the King would appreciate the tribute--imagine how many peanut butter-and-banana sandwiches you could fry in it.

“My heart started to beat fast when I saw him,” says U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman.

Although Aug. 16 marked the 20th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death, butter artist Norma “Duffy” Lyon didn’t know that when she chose to immortalize him this year. The truth is the 68-year-old Lyon is not a big rock ‘n’ roll fan. She favors classical music, but she decided against a Butter Bach: “I don’t think people would go for it.”

The Toledo, Iowa, woman certainly knows what’s popular. This is the 38th year she has sculpted a butter cow for the state fair, continuing an Iowa tradition that dates to 1911. (This year’s cow: a Jersey.)

She expanded her repertoire a few years ago. So far, she has sculpted a butter Garth Brooks, and last year she concocted a butter version of Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” that proved almost as popular as Butter Elvis. Of course, Wood was an Iowa boy.

Lyon wanted to sculpt Elvis out of white tallow, but beef officials “didn’t want anything to do with it. They’re so down on fat, they almost had a fit. I knew the butter people would jump on it.”

Butter Elvis, like the butter cow, took about five days to finish. Lyon first builds a frame, then adds the butter. Elvis required 400 pounds of the stuff, compared to 600 pounds for the cow, but this is the younger, slimmer Elvis.

Though she suffered a stroke earlier this year, Lyon still hopes to complete her masterpiece next year--a butter sculpture of “The Last Supper.”

From Butter Elvis to “The Last Supper”--there’s a moral in there somewhere. About the best Lyon can come up with is that you probably shouldn’t stick a pat of Butter Elvis on your morning toast.

“Oh, you could, but then you’d suffer the consequences.”

Thank you. Thank you very much.