Molly drove a classic T-bird in the 2001 parade with her sister Dawn riding along. The two sisters always find a lot to laugh about in their fair experiences.

Molly Killeen Maxwell has been in each Cuba/Crawford County Fair Parade for the past 30 years. This feat is impressive when you realize that Molly is only 30 years old, and the July 14, 2010 parade will be her 31st. Molly will definitely be a star in this year’s parade, which has the theme “Lights, Camera, Action.”

Molly has been pulled in a wagon and ridden bicycles, scooters, big wheels, and horses in parades. She has viewed the parade from floats. She has driven classic cars and a work truck, passed out candy, and pulled her niece and nephew in their first parades. But for 30 years, when it comes to the fair parade, Molly Killeen Maxwell is on board, rain or shine, mud or dust.

Molly may have had a genetic disposition to being in the Cuba Fair Parade. Her great grandfather Bill Shockley was a regular in the parade for years. His daughter Rose Jane Pasch is famous for her colorful western outfits, often red, white, and blue, as she rides her horse and proudly carries the Cuba Rough Rider or American flags in the parade.

In 1980, at 11 months old, Molly slept through her very first parade as she rode in the back of a wagon decorated as a covered wagon and pulled by her older sister Dawn. In the early parade years, Molly was usually in or on a vehicle advertising Echo Express, a company that her dad Gary worked for at the time. In ‘81, wearing a red Echo Express shirt, Molly slept some more while Dawn did the work.

Molly was proud to be able to ride with her grandmother Rose Pasch.

Then the tricycle, Big Wheel, scooter, bicycle years began. In ‘82 Molly came into her own when she got to wear her blue dance costume and ride her tricycle in the parade.

The whole family was involved in the parades, with dad on the construction detail, and Mom Vicky coming up with the costume ideas that expressed the fair’s theme. During these years there was a tricycle airplane, bicycle canoe, and various costumes such as doctor, Indian, and a bee pulling a wagon of flowers. As Molly and Vicky reminisced while looking through their fair scrapbook, Molly commented, “We usually took first or second place, even though mom usually thought up the ideas a couple of days ahead.” Vicky commented, “I work better under pressure.”

Molly entered her band and horse years in the late 80s and early 90s. In 1989, wearing her cowgirl costume she joined her grandmother Rose Jane Pasch and rode a horse. In 1990, she rode, dressed in a red, white, and blue theme and carried a flag.

For three years, 1991-1993, she was in the school band and marched while playing her alto sax. She laughed and said, “I was terrible at marching. I remember one year when I got everyone mixed up, and it got blamed on Tim Fuchs.”

Then from 1994-1998, she rejoined her grandmother and rode a horse in the parade. Her sister Dawn was not that interested in the horses, so as the two sisters got older Molly kept on with the parades while Dawn was there as support and a bystander. In 1994, Molly wore Highway Patrolman Lou Hodge’s old uniform and rode along side her grandmother. People didn’t recognize her even when told she was the one in the uniform.

Her last year riding a horse in 1998 almost didn’t happen. She always rode with her grandmother, but just before the parade, one of the horses had a problem and couldn’t be in the parade. Rather than cause Molly to miss a parade, her grandmother insisted that she take her horse and ride by herself.

Then in ‘99 she ran for fair queen and rode on a float. As Molly, Dawn, and Vicky looked over the photos from all the fairs, Molly and her mom started laughing about the sparkly blue formal that she wore for the queen contest. Her mom explained, “Molly needed a dress for homecoming one year. She found this blue dress that she really liked, but it was expensive. I told her that she would have to wear it more than once.” It seems the blue dress has gotten quite the run. She wore it for homecoming, the prom, the queen contest, on a float one year, and to her niece Isabella’s Fancy Party (where everyone had to dress up in fancy clothes). As they were laughing about the blue dress her mom added, “You are going to have to wear it on the float this year too.”

Sometimes it gets pretty warm during the fair parade. In the 3rd row back on the left, Molly wipes her brow as the band marches across the tracks to the old fairgrounds.

In her 20s, she drove her dad’s 1970 purple roadrunner for a couple of years and drove a ‘57 T-Bird. One year she pulled a racecar with a work truck. She rode in the back of Montgomery’s “swimming pool” truck for another parade.

It hasn’t always been convenient for Molly to be in the parade, but it was something she was committed to. “I never got to go to the band camp that the other kids went to because it was during the parade,” Molly said. She had to fly back from vacation early to make one parade. She also had to ask off of work every year on Wednesday for the parade. Another year, she had the flu for nine days before the parade and was too weak to walk. They gave her a sign that said “Judge” and put her on the float with the little kids riding in her dad’s collection of pedal cars. Today, her St. Louis friends teasingly give her a hard time about her devotion to the parade.

When asked what some of her funnier experiences were, Molly said, “There are many funny things that happened during the parade. When you get Dawn and me together, we seem to find everything funny. We can even find humor in the hot weather and rain. We definitely had a lot of both.”

Starting in 2005, the parades took on a new emphasis with the arrival of Molly’s sister, Dawn Kamler’s daughter Isabella, who is now five. Then Dawn’s son Lincoln, now 4, arrived. They began a new tradition of being in the parade every year. In 2005, Molly pulled Isabella on a rocket that Gary constructed from one of his pedal cars. Isabella won her first ribbon for that float. Lincoln got in on the parades too, and today the family has just started building their own float that expresses the annual theme. Often, Dawn and Molly walk by the float and pass out candy and talk to the people who line the parade route.

Vicky still thinks up a lot of the ideas, Gary listens to them, and then makes it happen in his own way. Everyone pitches in, and the tradition continues. According to Vicky, “The family enjoys the experience of working together for the parade. Last year, my cousin was here from Atlanta. He walked and handed out candy, and he had never been involved in anything so home townish. We thought he acted like he was running for mayor, and we still laugh about him.”

Besides being in the parade for 30 years and being both a princess and queen contest candidate, Molly has also raised and shown 4-H steers and been in a dog show with her grandmother’s black poodle wearing a dance costume. “I was supposed to get to get the dog to dance, but it did not want to dance for me,” she laughed. “But we took first place. I don’t know how they talked me into that one.”

Isabella, Aunt Molly (L) and Dawn (R) share from of their funnier fair experiences with Isabella and Lincoln.

“The thing I like best about being in the parade every year is seeing all of the people. There are a lot of people I grew up with that I only see during fair week. Most of them I see during the parade,” Molly mentioned.