[8] There, she became obsessed with fashion magazines, later saying, I even went to second-hand stores to buy all the old issues … I read them cover to cover, devouring every word and every picture of my new idols, the beautiful models who reached so glamorously from the pages out to me.In 1956, she borrowed money from her father to go to modeling school.

[8] Patricia Stevens, a booker at another agency, approached Wilhelmina at the 1959 International Trade Show in Chicago and instructed her to lose 20 pounds if she wanted to become a successful model, as well as get rid of the stage name Winnie Hart.

I was running on nervous energy as well as determination.She spent a year in Paris and was featured on the cover of the December 1960 issue of L'Officiel before returning to the U.S. and becoming one of the most famous models of the 1960s.

During her career, she appeared on the cover of 255 magazines, and also modeled in South America, India, Hong Kong, and Europe.

Her career was also discussed in a Chicago Sun-Times article called Wilhelmina: From Waller High To Haute Couture.

According to her obituary in Time: During her cover-girl days, Wilhelmina boasted that she was "one of the few high-fashion models built like a woman."

With her 5 ft. 11 in., 38-24-36 frame, doe eyes, delicate cheekbones, and mane of high-piled dark hair, she epitomized the classical, aristocratic look that she helped to make the style standard of the 1950s and '60s...[3] On 5 February 1965, she married Victor Bruce Cooper, former executive producer of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.