Candice Cassidy - Miss June 2009

The farm-girl fantasy holds a special place in Americana. She is wholesome and natural yet wise beyond her years. She is decent, churchgoing and sexy as all goddamn hell. Tough, independent, loyal, suntanned from living out her days beneath the big sky….

If you're a true Playboy fan, you know farmer's daughter Candice Cassidy made her first appearance with us as a Cyber Girl in 2006, re-creating old Centerfolds from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Now that she's Miss June, we wanted to photograph her in all her glory down home on the farm, naturally. The 23-year-old Ohio native lives on her family's 60-acre homestead, where her mother breeds Tennessee walking horses. Growing up, Candice tended the stalls and rode often. But as a kid, she found she was as interested in dance as she was in horsing around.

"My mom put me in classes when I was three because I was a little shy," she says. The plan worked: Candice isn't shy anymore. She owns one of the biggest dance studios in her area. She teaches tap, ballet, jazz and lyrical dance four nights a week, in addition to studying psychology at a local college. (She just graduated.) She plans to get her master's degree and will use her Playmate earnings to leave the family farm and buy some property nearby. Since her Cyber Girl days Candice has also been commuting between Ohio and Los Angeles. She says she's seduced by the City of Angels. "I would say my biggest excitement is flying out for parties every month," she explains. "I live in a rural area, and there's no place to hang out except in people's houses." Still, she says, she'll always be a farm girl at heart.