Armi Kuusela

Armi Helena Kuusela (born 20 August 1934) is a Finnish model and beauty queen. In 1952 she won the national beauty contest Suomen Neito. She was presented with a trip to the United States to participate in the first-ever Miss Universe pageant. She is the first titleholder in history.
Biography.
Armi's parents, Aarne Kuusela and Martta Kürö, met in the Canadian province of Ontario, where they soon got married and where their first child was born. After spending several years in Canada, they returned to Finland, settling in the town of Muhosa in Northern Ostrobothnia. Martta gave birth to one boy and five girls, one of whom died at the age of two and a half. Martta's fourth daughter was born on August 20, 1934. In 1951, at the age of 17, Armi began attending a women's college in Porvoo. She was fond of swimming, skiing, gymnastics and was going to enter the Faculty of Gymnastics at the University of Helsinki.