Anne Marie Braafheid became the first black woman to attain the position of 1st runner-up in the Miss Universe

Miss Universe

Miss Universe is an annual international beauty contest that is run by the Miss Universe Organization. The pageant is the most publicized beauty contest in the world with 600 million viewers....

 contest. She was the second black woman to reach the top 15 finalists position, after Evelyn Miot of Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

 in 1962. She represented Curaçao

Curaçao

Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...

 in the 1968 pageant, and was featured in Ebony Magazine after achieving 1st runner-up status

She had a part in an Italian film, Tue mani sul mio corpo, the following year. She has been married since 1969, and has one daughter. A primary school teacher and fluent in 5 languages, she sponsors local beauty contests in Curaçao and owns a modeling agency.

Curaçao has, furthermore, made it to Miss Universe semifinals in 1976 and 1991 (both ladies were trained by Anne Marie Braafheid!). Besides this, the island finished in fourth place in 1997.

External links

• Anne Marie Braafheid Biography (Archived 2009-10-25)