The Family History of Wilhelmina Cooper née Behmenburg
Gertrud Wilhelmina Frieda Behmenburg, better known as Wilhelmina Cooper, was born on 1 May 1939 in Culemborg, Gelderland, Nederland. She was the daughter of a German butcher, “Willy” Wilhelm Robert Karl Behmenburg and Klasina van der Straten, a cigar-maker’s daughter from Culemborg, Gelderland. The Behmenburgs immigrated to America in 1954, where Wilhelmina worked as a model, eventually founding her own agency, Wilhelmina Models.