Martha Vasconcellos

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Martha Vasconcellos (born Martha Maria Cordeiro Vasconcellos, c. 1949), is a Brazilian who became that country's second Miss Universe winner, after Ieda Maria Vargas first achieved the feat in 1963. She also became the fifth Latin American to win the title, after Peru's Gladys Zender in 1957, Colombia's Luz Marina Zuluaga in 1958 and Argentina's Norma Nolan in 1962. Vasconcellos is a native of the state of Bahia.

[edit] Biography

Vasconcellos allegedly had a boyfriend since she was twelve when she represented Brazil at the 1968 Miss Universe pageant in Miami Beach, Florida. She beat 66 contestants, including Curaçao's Anne Marie Braafheid (the first Black woman to become first runner up in Miss Universe history), to win the title.

The morning after her win, she called her family and boyfriend in Brazil, expressing feelings of being homesick. Vasconcellos lived in New York, New York for the next five years, as required by the Miss Universe organization, then returned to Brazil in 1973.

Miss Vasconcellos then moved to Los Angeles at the advice of her modelling agent Savannah Heichs, where she stayed for the next ten years.

Vasconcellos today leads a quiet and private life, practically disappearing from the public eye. She was married to Frank Mastereid, a shoe magnate, and she has three kids, Nicole, Franco and Sebastien.