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Rodney, Doris, and Roy Hetts gathered at the base of the Coliseum in 2014 before the celebration of the 50th World Dairy Expo.
If Allen Hetts was the founding father of World Dairy Expo, then certainly his wife, Doris, could be considered a founding mother providing undaunting support to Allen, the family’s Crescent Beauty Farm, and World Dairy Expo. This past weekend, Doris passed away after witnessing the celebration of the 50th year of the show that they worked so hard to make a reality. Doris was one of the few people who attended all 50 World Dairy Expos, but she was also one of the first to believe and invest in Allen’s dream to bring an international show to Madison, Wis. As Allen worked to bring a large dairy event to Wisconsin on the tails of the faltering Dairy Cattle Congress in Waterloo, Iowa, Doris either wrote or typed every stitch of Allen’s correspondence and did whatever she could to make the burgeoning show a reality. That included leveraging the family farm to financially back the show. Perhaps one of the best examples of that “whatever it takes attitude” was revealed in an interview preceding the writing of the 50th anniversary book, We Need a Show. In the early years of Expo, there was a significant push to make the show an international event. Doris for her part contributed to the efforts to bring in international attendees by writing individual letters to each of the presidents and executive secretaries of the Holstein organizations throughout the world.
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Doris was named National Dairy Woman of the year in 1985 for her work on her family's Crescent Beauty Farms and their dedication to the dairy industry and establishing World Dairy Expo.
But every moment and every effort was worth it for the dairy mom. She was happy to do what she could to make their farm, family, and World Dairy Expo itself a success
Rest in peace, Doris. We are forever indebted to your vision.![](https://cms-static.wehaacdn.com/hoards-com/images/editor-Maggie.7092.jpg)
Maggie Seiler