A lifelong commitment to dairy

When Juliet Tessmer Garbow was about 7 years old, her dairy farmer father took her to the Minnesota State Fair. She remembers holding his hand as Princess Kay of the Milky Way waved at her from a convertible. Her dad said, “Someday, that’s going to be you.”

Glenard was right. Garbow became the 21st Princess Kay in 1974, first winning the Hennepin County title and later the Region 7 crown at a time when 12 regional winners became the Princess Kay contestants. She remembers the coronation well.

“My family was sitting there, and I was just so scared I would disappoint them,” Garbow said. “My heart was racing.”

She said she gets goosebumps even now when she thinks about it.

“I looked down at my dad and he was so happy,” she said. “My dad always wanted a Princess Kay.”

Garbow’s family milked 40 registered Holstein cows near Rogers, Minnesota, and she was one of the chief helpers on the farm. Baling hay and doing calf and heifer feeding were among her duties. She still has a DeLaval milk bucket from the family farm, adding decor to her home in Arizona.

At 20, Garbow captured the Princess Kay title while she was working as a lab technician at a Monticello medical clinic. Later, she would become a neonatal nurse practitioner, a role in which she still practices, fulltime, at age 70. She lived in Michigan and received her master’s degree at Stoney Brook University. Now she spends time in both Arizona and Detroit, Michigan.

She is also still a practicing dairy promoter. 

She returned to the Minnesota State Fair this year for the first time since she was crowned. Garbow took in the Princess Kay coronation and served milk at the All-You-Can-Drink Milk Stand on the first day of the fair.

“If I could serve milk every day of the fair, I would volunteer every day for nothing,” Garbow said. “It was wonderful to see that people still do that.”

Her work in the medical field gave her a chance to emphasize the role of dairy in building strong bones to the moms with whom she dealt.

Garbow regularly sends margarine back to restaurant kitchens to make it clear she prefers real butter.

“I am true blue to dairy,” she said. “There is always yogurt in the refrigerator. Cottage cheese is a must. I wrap meat around a cheese stick. My little grandkids — they never got pop until they got it at school; it was milk or chocolate milk.”

She said her grandchildren have never broken a bone.

Her grandchildren were not only the recipients of Garbow’s enthusiasm for dairy — they also were able to play with her Princess Kay crown and banner. Other souvenirs, like a gold bracelet presented as a gift from milk producers, are still in her possession along with special memories of the year’s experiences leading up to and during her reign.

She received the Region 7 crown during an event at a shopping center. But her mother, Dorothy, using the time there to grocery shop, missed the moment.

“She heard the announcement over the speakers in the store,” Garbow said.

During judging for Princess Kay, Garbow met WCCO radio’s Maynard Speece, who later attended her wedding with his wife. At the time, Speece was a nationally known farm broadcaster.

“My dad was so proud (Speece) came to my wedding,” Garbow said. “I remember he gave us pots and pans.”

Just like newly-crowned Princess Kays of the modern era, Garbow spent the first day of the Minnesota State Fair in the butter sculpting booth and rode in the daily parade. The remaining regional dairy princesses spent a few days each being featured in butter sculpures and handing out leftover butter chips on crackers to fairgoers.

Garbow had shown cattle in 4-H at the state fair, receiving her ribbons from whoever wore the Princess Kay crown, so she was especially pleased to be the one presenting ribbons at dairy shows at the Lee & Rose Warner Coliseum.

Later in her Princess Kay year, she participated and won a milking contest at a Twins game at the Metropolitan Stadium where her opponents were former New York Yankee great Jim “Catfish” Hunter and Danny Thompson from the Minnesota Twins.

“I know Dad held the cow, and it was my cow,” she said.

Garbow met the governor, Wendell Anderson, during a “June in January” proclamation and traveled across the state visiting regional dairy events, stores and banks during June.

However, many of Garbow’s fond memories are of her delight in making her dairy farmer father proud.

“Dad was such a huge influence,” she said. “He was such a good farmer. It wasn’t just his job; it was who he was: farmer, father, husband.”