Martha Vasconcellos

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Martha Vasconcellos (born Martha Maria Cordeiro Vasconcellos, c. 1948), 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 64 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 year, as required by the Miss Universe organization, then returned to Brazil in 1969 and married the day after.

Vasconcellos today leads a quiet and private life, practically disappearing from the public eye. She has two kids from her first wedding to Reinaldo Loureiro: Leonardo and Leilane, and has two grandson, Felipe and Guilherme.

Martha currently is resides in the Boston, Massachusetts area and works for a Portuguese-speaking organization as a victims rights counselor.

[edit] See also

List of Brazilians

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Carmen Sílvia de Barros Ramasco
Miss Brasil
1968
Succeeded by
Vera Fischer
Preceded by
Sylvia Hitchcock
Miss Universe
1968
Succeeded by
Gloria Diaz
Languages