Piedmont's 1958's Dairy Princess isn't forgotten

By Robert Medley

Published: September 6, 2008

PIEDMONT — The black-and-white photo of a wholesome teen beauty shows her knee-deep in a hefty stack of fan mail.

Sandra Sue Stout tried to read all the letters and the marriage proposals and the fan mail from overseas and across the country.

It was 1958 and Stout was the American Dairy Princess.

The photo, taken 50 years ago in the office of the American Dairy Association in Chicago, shows more letters for her than there were people in the then-18-year-old's hometown of Piedmont.

Stout was a farm girl who could milk a cow and drive a tractor. She studied home economics in the classroom. Then, for one year in 1958, she showed the world how to pour a glass of milk, make cookies with "every dairy product imaginable,” and speak to civic groups, schools and at state fairs, all to extol the virtues of milk.

Stout's reign as American Dairy Princess will be remembered today during Piedmont Founders Day downtown.

A display featuring old photos of Stout and other memorabilia will be available for viewing at the Piedmont Historical Museum, in the former Piedmont State Bank building on First Street.

Stout, daughter of Alvin and Beulah Stout, one of the founding families of Piedmont, almost didn't win the American Dairy Princess title. She was voted Oklahoma's alternate dairy princess, but would not have gone on to the national contest if Brenda Adams of Payne County hadn't decided to get married. Rules required the dairy princess be single.

"All of the sudden in the middle of harvest we get a call and it kind of put a kink in my dad's plans because someone had to take off work,” Stout said in an interview at her Piedmont home. She and her younger brother were vital workers on the family farm.

Stout's rise to dairy fame began Oct. 13, 1957, when she arrived at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago with 26 other contestants. "All of the girls from the south were truly good-looking southern belles,” she said. "I never felt so out of place in my life.”

The competition had "big money” behind them and fancy clothes, she said. Stout made all of her clothes herself. She wore a white strapless gown with a hoop skirt.

"I didn't think I was going to win,” Stout said. "The little girl from Louisiana looked like Marilyn Monroe.”

The judging included questions about farm life. She was asked by judges if she could describe a quarter horse. She did, explaining that a quarter horse is a horse bred to run a fast quarter mile.

She remembers hearing the top 10 finalists called. Then the top five. Finally the list dwindled to two.

The next part is "a haze,” she said. Her name was called and she was crowned. She saw her parents in the audience. They had sold three milk cows to buy train tickets to Chicago. She recalls bursting into tears when she saw them.

During the next year, life was decidedly more fast-paced than it had been on the farm. It was a time when the American Dairy Association was heavily into a campaign to promote milk and all its benefits. There was no better way than to see a girl from the heartland pouring milk.

Along the way, Stout received thousands of letters. The 1958 mayor of Oklahoma City, Allen Street, wrote her, stating, "I salute the judges for their good taste and you for your splendid achievement.”

She got a telegram of praise from then-Gov. Raymond Gary at a time when a telegram "was a big deal.”

She received a $750 allowance for a wardrobe.

She appeared on "The Arthur Godfrey Show” on CBS and "The Today Show” on NBC with David Garroway. She toured state fairs and livestock shows and visited magazine and newspaper offices for interviews.

Stout was hired by WKY-TV in Oklahoma City in 1959 and appeared on the farm show with Russell Pierson.

"It changed my life,” she said, adding that former Piedmont Mayor William "Bill” Dannehl summed things up best.

"He always told my parents that I put Piedmont on the map,” she said.

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