TOLEDO, Iowa — Some voters in this presidential caucus-crazy state show their support with yard signs, lapel pins and bumper stickers. And then some use dairy products.

Norma Lyon, a 78-year-old dairy farmer from Toledo, Iowa, chose to show her support for Sen. Barack Obama, who is seeking to become the first black U.S. president, by sculpting a likeness of his head with 23 pounds of butter.

The butter bust was displayed Thursday night at an Obama campaign event in a Toledo, Iowa, middle school auditorium, melting only a little under the heat of overhead lights.

Lyon said she made the butter Obama about two weeks ago and has been keeping it fresh in a deep freeze in anticipation of showing it off to Obama. 

She plans to haul it out again on Jan. 3 and take it with her to the caucuses, which help determine the Democratic and Republican nominees for the November presidential election. For 46 years, Lyon sculpted the full-size butter cow at the annual Iowa State Fair but she retired in 2006.

Obama thanked Lyon for her support and gave her a hug following a speech in which he pledged to end the war in Iraq, strengthen Social Security and reform the U.S. health-care system.

The senator fretted only slightly over whether or not the sculpture made his ears too big. Lyon said that as much as she liked Obama, she had to be honest in her art.  

– Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young