Reita Faria
Reita Faria Powell is an Indian physician, former model and the winner of Miss World 1966 pageant. She is the first Indian Miss World winner and the first to be qualified as a medical doctor.
Early life
Reita Faria was born in the Matunga locality of Mumbai on 23 August 1943. Her parents were Goan Catholics, her father John was from the village of Tivim and his wife Antoinette was from Santa Cruz, Goa, both then part of Portuguese Goa. Faria was the couple's second daughter after their eldest, Philomena. The family was middle class, with her father working in a mineral water factory and her mother running a beauty salon.Growing up, Faria, with an adult height of 5 feet 8 inches, was unusually tall for an Indian girl and made fun of by schoolboys who nicknamed her ‘mommy long legs’. Nevertheless Faria used her tall and lean build to her advantage in sports, playing ‘everything from throwball, netball and badminton’. Her first newspaper headlines were for scoring hat-tricks in hockey.
Career
In pageants
Having been born in Bombay, Faria thereby participated in the Miss Bombay contest, which she won. She subsequently won the Eve's Weekly Miss India contest in 1966. This made her eligible to represent India at Miss World 1966.During the Miss World 1966 contest, she won the sub-titles 'Best in Swimsuit' and 'Best in Eveningwear' for wearing a saree. She eventually went on to win the Miss World 1966 crown at the climax of the event, beating 51 competing delegates from other countries.
Faria was a judge at Femina Miss India in 1998, and has come back to judge the Miss World competition on a few occasions. 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.