Dr. Vera Lúcia Tavares Petterle (born October 31, 1949) is a Brazilian doctor and beauty queen who won

Miss World 1971 Miss World 1971, the 21st edition of the Miss World pageant, was held on 10 November 1971 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, UK. 56 contestants competed for the Miss World and Lúcia Petterle from Brazil won the crown of Miss World 1971. She ...

. Today she continues with her charity work helping underprivileged children in her free time by giving medical needs and care to them.

Biography

Lúcia Tavares Petterle was born in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, October 31, 1949. She spent her teenage years in

Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul Santa Maria is a municipality (''município'') in the central region of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil. In 2020, its population was 283,677 inhabitants in a total area of . Santa Maria is the 5th biggest municipality in the ...

, where her father served in the military. Back in Rio, Lucia began participating in beauty contests for fun, while studying medicine at the University Gama Filho, specializing in

endocrinology Endocrinology (from '' endocrine'' + '' -ology'') is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions known as hormones. It is also concerned with the integration of developmental event ...

. She was elected Miss Tijuca Tennis Club - the last to sign up and with peer pressure - for which she fought and won the Miss State of Guanabara. Representing

Guanabara State The State of Guanabara ( pt, Estado da Guanabara, ) was a state within the Fourth Brazilian Republic from 1960 to 1964, and the Federative Republic of Brazil from 1964 to 1975. It included the city of Rio de Janeiro. The state was established in ...

, she won the Miss World position in the national pageant, earning her the right to compete as Brazil's delegate in the

Miss World Miss World is the oldest existing international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951. Since his death in 2000, Morley's widow, Julia Morley, has co-chaired the pageant. Along with Miss Universe, Miss Int ...

pageant in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. She became the first woman from her country and the fourth South American woman to win the title. After her reign, she went on to finish her medical studies and became a doctor.

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20071112035332/http://www.geocities.com/kingdomofmissworld/world1971-1980.html Living people 1949 births Brazilian female models Miss World winners Miss World 1971 delegates People from Rio de Janeiro (city) Brazilian beauty pageant winners Brazilian women physicians Brazilian endocrinologists {{Brazil-model-stub