Now it can be told: May 1965's Mademoiselle From Avignon wasn't. 

"I was really born in Bilbao, Spain, of Basque ancestry," Maria McBane says today. "Back in 1965, somebody -- not Playboy -- advised me that it would sound more elegant if I said I came from France. So I went along with it." Now married to a man of Hispanic heritage, Robert Pacheco, she carries her ancestry proudly. Maria and Robert lived for many years in Kahuku on the Hawaiian island of Oahu; there they rehabbed an aging building and established an extremely successful restaurant called Huevos, lauded by the press both on the mainland ("Los Angeles Times") and in the islands ("In Paradise" magazine). 

Unfortunately, Huevos is no more -- leveled in 1995 in a dispute over land rights. "The people in charge wanted the property for a golf course they planned to build," Maria says. Determined to fight for their own rights and those of aging ex-sugar plantation workers who had been promised they could rehabilitate or rebuild their homes on the site, Maria and Robert have shelved her plans to enter politics in Hawaii and have temporarily relocated to California, where they can plead their case with authorities in the San Francisco office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Among the allegations HUD has been asked to investigate: fraud, nepotism, lack of proper record keeping and various other departures from regulations. 

The HUD investigation has proceeded slowly, and few of the original plantation workers have gained housing. Says Maria: "They came from the Philippines and Japan to work on the sugar plantation, and many of them didn't read or write English well, so they didn't know how to protect their rights. Their average age was estimated at 60 when the plantation closed in 1971, so they're dying off now. But I'm going to keep fighting." 


PLAYBOY APPEARANCES: Centerfold, May 1965; "Playmate Review -- 1965," January 1966.

PLAYBOY NEWSSTAND SPECIALS: "Playmates: The First 15 Years," January 1983.

PLAYBOY VIDEO CREDITS: "Playboy's Playmates: The Early Years" (1991).

PLAYBOY BOOK APPEARANCES: "The Playmate Book" (1996).

PLAYBOY CALENDARS: 1966.

MOVIE CREDITS: "Fireball 500" (1966).