Ieda Maria Vargas, the first Brazilian woman elected Miss Universe, died at the age of 80.
Rio de Janeiro.- Former model Ieda Maria Vargas, the first Brazilian to be elected Miss Universe, died this Monday at the age of 80 due to heart problems, according to her family.
Vargas, considered the most beautiful woman in the world in 1963, in the twelfth edition of the international beauty contest, preceded Martha Vasconcellos, who won the same title five years later, in 1968. So far they are the only Brazilians crowned in Miss Universe.
The former beauty queen had been admitted for 15 days to a hospital in the southern city of Gramado, where she passed away.
Born in Porto Alegre, the capital of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, Vargas was born on December 31, 1944, and was only 18 years old when she won the world crown, in a contest held by 50 candidates on July 20, 1963, in Miami.
Her victory marked a milestone for Brazil and South America, as she was the second representative from the continent to obtain the title.
The Brazilian woman received the crown from the hands of the Argentine Norma Beatriz Nolan, winner in 1962 and who passed away last August.
Her journey in beauty pageants began a year earlier, in 1962, when she was chosen as the Queen of the Swimming Pools of Rio Grande do Sul, at only 17 years old. Subsequently, she was crowned Miss Porto Alegre and Miss Brazil, a title she obtained on June 22, 1963, at the Maracanãzinho gymnasium in Rio de Janeiro.
After his reign, which concluded in August 1964, when he handed over the crown to the Greek Corinna Tsopei, Vargas lived for a few years in the United States, where he traveled through more than 20 countries as part of his official commitments.
In that period, she received a proposal from actor Peter Sellers, who was a judge in the Miss Universe contest, to start a career in Hollywood, which she rejected to return to Brazil and lead a more reserved life.
Most Read
