Michael Jackson, who has been memorialized around the country in events lavish and little, will not be sculptured in butter at the Iowa State Fair next month after all, despite plans announced earlier by the fair’s leaders.

“We started hearing concerns from the public that he wasn’t an Iowan and didn’t have a connection to the fair,” said Lori Chappell, the fair’s marketing director, explaining why organizers ultimately put the question to a public vote.

No such concerns were raised about Tiger Woods or Harry Potter, previous honorees. And in truth, Ms. Chappell said, the King of Pop and his four brothers did perform at the fair in 1971. But apparently the link was too tenuous (or discomforting) to a majority of those who cast votes last week in the fair’s admittedly “unscientific online poll.”