Keriman Halis Ece is a former Turkish beauty contestant, who became Miss Turkey 1932 and Miss Universe 1932. She was born in 1913 in İstanbul, Turkey as one of the six children of a merchant, Tevfik Halis Bey. Her uncle was a renowned operetta composer Muhlis Sabahattin Ezgi and her aunt a well-known musician and composer Neveser Kökdeş. She participated in 1932 in the Miss Turkey beauty pageant that started only in 1929 and was promoted by the newspaper Cumhuriyet. She was elected the most beautiful Turkish woman in the contest held on July 2, 1932 in İstanbul among eight candidates. Keriman Halis was sent then to the Miss Universe contest held in Spa, Belgium to represent Turkey. On July 31, 1932 she was crowned Miss Universe among competitors from 27 countries, achieving Turkey's first title at an international beauty contest after three years only of its existence and less than a decade after the founding of the Republic. Miss Universe back Turkey and everyone was delighted at the news, and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (the founder of the Turkish Republic and its first President) himself sent her a congratulation telegram, in which he referred to her as 'ece', the Turkish for queen. So when it became compulsory for all Turkish citizens to take surnames in the year 1934, Keriman Halis took the surname Ece, which means 'queen' in Turkish. In 2007 she turned 94 years old.>>
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