 On July 31, 1932, she finished first 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.Following the introduction of the surname act on June 21, 1934, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk gave her the family name "Ece", which means "queen" in Turkish.She died on January 28, 2012, nineteen days shy of her 99th birthday.