Haley Hinrichs, a 19-year-old college student from Goodhue, Minn., was crowned the 63rd Princess Kay of the Milky Way at the Minnesota State Fair on Wednesday night. Hinrichs represents Goodhue County, in southeastern Minnesota.
On Thursday, the fair's opening day, she will sit in a rotating cooler in the Dairy Building for several hours to have her likeness sculpted from a 90-pound block of butter. The other 11 finalists for the title also will have their images carved.
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Hinrichs is an agriculture education student at Iowa State University. According to her fair biography, she loves spending time with family and friends, showing cattle, dancing, cooking and reading. She's the daughter of Tim Hinrichs, who farms near Goodhue, and the sister of Justin. Haley's mom, Nancy Hinrichs, died of leukemia in 2011.
Since 1954, the fair has honored young women who live and work on the state's dairy farms via the coronation. Princess Kay, who is expected to be knowledgeable about the science, vocation and tradition of dairy farming, serves for a year as the dairy community's spokeswoman.
The competition is sponsored by the Midwest Dairy Association.
The other finalists, selected from among 50 county dairy princesses, were:
• Kalley Berg, 20, Olmsted County.
• Makaila Klejeski, 18, Dodge County.
• Morgan Krause, 18, Wright County.
• Annette Kyllo, 23, Olmsted County.
• Kayla Leiding, 19, Fillmore County.
• Sabrina Portner, 19, Brown County.
• Kiersten Sabolik, 18, Douglas County.
• Kelly Schouviller, 19, Becker County.
• Meghan Skiba, 19, Isanti County.
• Emily Stocker, 18, Scott County.
• Stephanie Sukalski, 19, Mower County.
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