If you are a baby boomer you remember Elsie the Cow, the cartoon cow on the carton of Borden Milk (especially chocolate). I remember in elementary school getting the small cartons during lunch. Had to pay two cents for them.

Elsie was created in 1936 by the Borden Dairy Company as the symbol for their “perfect” daily product. In 2000, it was named one of the Top Ten advertising icons of the 20th century by Ad Age. Borden went out of biz in the 1990s, but Eagle Family Food and Borden Dairy are successors. The latter still features Elsie which is a Registered trademark. Gail Borden, the originator, invented the first successful method to make condensed milk.

Did you know there was a real Elsie the Cow? The first living Elsie was a registered Jersey Heifer and was exhibited in Borden’s 1939 New York World’s Fair “Rotolactor” exhibit (demonstrating the company’s invention, the rotary milking parlor). Her real name was “You’ll Do, Lobelia.” Weird. She toured the country and was buried at the Walker-Gordon Farm in Plainsboro, New Jersey. Her tomb stone is marked with the title of “one of the great Elsies of our time.” She was put to sleep after a a truck accident.

Another of the Elsies........

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