In other news - Princess Kay of the Milky Way

This is great news to share!

The daughter of a 1986 Brooten high school graduate was crowned the 69th Princess Kay of the Milky Way yesterday on the eve of the Minnesota State Fair.

Rachel Rynda, daughter of Francis and Theresa Rynda of Montgomery, is the 2022-2023 Princess Kay of the Milky Way. The Rynda family are dairy farmers in Le Sueur County, and Rachel will be a sophomore this fall at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

Theresa (Schmitz) Rynda was a 1986 Brooten high school graduate. Her father is Martin Schmitz of Brooten, and her mother was the late Esther Schmitz. Esther passed away on January 28, 2011. Martin and Esther's 57-year long marriage was blessed with 13 children, five of whom passed away in infancy.

Martin and Esther's grandson Joe Feldman was killed in an automobile accident on April 22, 2021 in Douglas County. He was a 2020 B-B-E graduate and a member of the 2019-2020 B-B-E wrestling team that won the Central Minnesota Conference title for the first time. (They're on a roll now with three straight CMC titles).

We'll see what else I dig up on this story.