The very first Colombian, Luz Marina Zuluaga to be crowned Miss Universe, a title she earned in 1958, died on December 2’ 2015 in the central city of Manizales. The beauty queen was 77.

Luz Marina Zuluaga passed away at the apartment where she lived, in the city’s Palermo neighborhood. It also has been reported that Zuluaga apparently fainted while in the company of friends at her apartment and that paramedics were unable to revive her.

A native of the city of Pereira, the beauty queen finished first runner-up in the 1957 national contest, but after the winner was forced to resign her title, Zuluaga went on to represent the Andean nation at the seventh Miss Universe pageant in Long Beach, California, where she was bestowed with the crown.

After winning the Miss Universe title in 1958, the lady was declared tax exempt for life, had a house built for her by the government of Colombia, and was honoured with a postage stamp of her very own mesmerizing beauty in 1959.

The beauty queen was born on October 31, 1938, in the city of Pereira, Colombia. In 1957, at the early age of 19, she competed for the Senorita Caldas contest and emerged as a winner, earning the right to represent her state at the Reinado Nacional de le Belleza, the Miss Colombia Pageant. To compete for the Miss Colombia title, she was awarded with the prize amount of 5,000 dollars by the state of Caldos (including her wardrobe, etc.), but she ended up spending 20,000 dollars of her own money!

“It’s very bad news ... that truly saddens us as well. She was not only an extraordinary beauty queen, but also a great lady,” the director of the Colombian National Beauty Pageant, Raimundo Angulo, reported the sources.

A photograph of Zuluaga with the Miss Universe crown and a scepter and the trophy she was awarded there are kept at the Colombian National Museum in Bogota.

After Zuluaga’s triumph, no Colombian was crowned Miss Universe until Paulina Vega, the reigning queen who ended the 57 year drought.