Wisconsin’s first Alice in Dairyland Margaret McGuire dies at 97

In 1948, Margaret Jean McGuire was just a young small-town teenage girl living in Highland who had no ambitions of being famous.

At the end of the day on May 19, 1948, she suddenly became one of the most photographed and recognized women in all of Wisconsin.

Her life, if she thought she had it planned, would never be the same.

So went the day for Margaret, then 18, when she was an unexpected contestant for Wisconsin’s first Alice in Dairyland finals. After a hectic day of photo sessions, meeting the judges, and speaking with an assemblage of reporters, Margaret, who was Contestant #4, bested 15 other statewide contestants for the title of Alice in Dairyland 1948 at the Schraeder Hotel on West Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee (the location of the Hilton Hotel today).

McGuire passed away on Sunday, October 4, 2026 at the age of 97 at Birchrock Castle senior assisted living center in Mukwonago.

Of all the things McGuire did in her life, she found out that none compared with her being
Alice in Dairyland which made her an iconic, celebrated, and recognized figure in Wisconsin history.

Even sixty and seventy years after her coronation, having the first Alice in Dairyland title never went away for Margaret. She was often the celebrity former Alice when she attended many Alice in Dairyland competitions to select yet again — and again — another of her Alice successors throughout the last seven decades.

As her two sons wrote in her obituary, “Marge” was born on Aug. 8, 1929 to Alphonse and Loyola Mary Schoepp McGuire of Highland, Wisconsin. She grew up in a home filled with music. The family was particularly proud of their Irish culture. “It was a heritage she loved to celebrate.”

A recent high school graduate, and just three months prior to her 19th birthday, Margaret’s proud parents and a local photographer deviously but well-meaningly entered her into a contest, which was the first Alice in Dairyland state competition, that was heavily promoted in newspapers and during news segments on the radio.

She was not made aware of her entry until weeks later when she received official notice to attend the inaugural Alice in Dairyland competition gathering. While McGuire did not grow up on a farm, she was surrounded by many small town cheese factories in the Highland area at that time.

“My father called me at school, and told me I was a finalist in the Alice in Dairyland contest,” Margaret recalled during a May 2017 interview with WBAY-TV in Green Bay. “I didn’t even know what Alice in Dairyland was,” Margaret admitted.

In 2017, the Neville Public Museum in Green Bay featured a full display on the history of the Alice in Dairyland ambassadorship, that included a large section devoted to McGuire as the state’s first Alice winner.

At the time, much of the history of the Alice in Dairyland program from the past 69 years was on display in a special gallery. The exhibit was held in conjunction with the Alice in Dairyland finals, which were hosted by Brown County in Ashwaubenon that year.

To celebrate the occasion, all former Alice winners were invited to attend the event.

“I looked at the invitation and it said, ‘The 70th reunion.’ And I’m thinking, ’70 years ago, I did that? I must be getting old,’” Margaret joked.

The Alice coronation banquet finale was held in northeastern Wisconsin several times, and many believe Margaret came to most of them — staged in Seymour in 1952, then Green Bay in 1967, as well as Peshtigo in 1971, Green Bay in 1978, and Sturgeon Bay in 1983, and the aforementioned Ashwaubenon in 2017, and lastly in Sturgeon Bay in 2024.

McGuire had been a role model for the 77 women who held the title of Alice in Dairyland. During her last public Alice in Dairyland appearance when Margaret attended the 75th Alice in Dairyland anniversary and coronation of the 2022 titleholder on May 21, 2022 in Madison, she drew many to come speak with her and get pictures.

McGuire, then 92, was even featured in a documentary about the then-75-year-old Alice in Dairyland program taped during her 2022 special guest appearance, in which she said, dressed in a sharp “Irish” green jacket, “I just love to hear about the Alice in Dairyland gals. It is a great program or it would not have lasted all of these years”.

Upon learning of Margaret’s passing, several former Alice in Dairyland titleholders released statements including former Alice of 2003 (the 56th) and Green Bay native Natalie Marie Parmentier Killion said “I will never forget Margaret and her attendance at numerous Alice finals. She was a true gem, and she will be dearly missed.”

“Margaret’s impact on Wisconsin’s agriculture industry as the first “Alice” will continue to be remembered with warmth and honor” said the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. “No other state has such a program, and Alice in Dairyland continues to be a dynamic voice for agriculture’s future. She will be remembered.”