REITA FARIA ,THE FIRST ASIAN BECAME MISS WORLD 1966 NOVEMBER 17

REITA FARIA ,THE FIRST ASIAN BECAME 

MISS WORLD 1966 NOVEMBER 17

BORN 1943 AUGUST 23

Reita Faria Powell[1] (born August 23, 1943)[2] born to Goan parents in British Bombay (now Mumbai) is an Indian model, doctor and the winner of the Miss World 1966 pageant, to become the first Asian woman to win the event. She went on to become the first Miss World winner to qualify as a Doctor.

Career[edit source]
Faria was born in Goa. After winning the Miss Mumbai Crown, she won the Eve's Weekly Miss India contest (not to be confused with the Femina Miss India competition, won that year by Yasmin Daji).

After her one-year tenure as Miss World, she refused modeling and films and instead concentrated on medical studies. Reita Faria was a student at the Grant Medical College & Sir J. J. Group of Hospitals where she completed her M.B.B.S. degree. Thereafter she went on to study at King's College Hospital, London. She married her mentor David Powell in 1971, and in 1973, the couple shifted to Dublin, where she started her medical practice.[3]

Reita was a judge at Femina Miss India in 1998, and has come back to judge the Miss World competition on a few occasions. For instance she was a judge along with Demis Roussos at the Miss World final of 1976 held in London where Cindy Breakespeare was crowned Miss World.

Personal life[edit source]
She now lives in Dublin, Ireland, with her husband, endocrinologist David Powell, whom she married in 1971.[4] They have two children (Deirdre and Ann Marie) and five grandchildren (Patrick, Cormac, David, Maria & Johnny).[5]