Keriman Halis Ece

Keriman Halis Ece — Biography

Keriman Halis Ece (16 February 1913, Istanbul – 28 January 2012, Istanbul) was a Turkish pianist and fashion model who became her country's first world beauty titleholder. Of Ubykh Circassian descent, she was chosen as the winner of the Miss Turkey pageant organized by the newspaper Cumhuriyet, earning the right to represent Turkey at the international contest.

In 1932, in Spa, Belgium, she was crowned winner of the world beauty pageant, making her Turkey's first world beauty queen and a source of considerable pride in the young Republic. Two years later, following the 1934 Surname Law, President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk personally granted her the surname "Ece."

Trained as a pianist and also active as a composer, Keriman Halis Ece went on to be remembered as one of the symbolic figures of women's modernization in early Republican Turkey. She died in Istanbul on 28 January 2012.