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DeDe Lind
DeDe Lind
DeDe Lind
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DeDe Lind (born Diane Gayle Lind) was an American glamour model famous for her appearance in Playboy magazine as the Playmate of the Month for August 1967.

Key Information

Biography

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Playboy

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Lind's photographer friend, Leon, talked her into testing for Playboy. At 19, she was selected to be the Playboy Playmate for August 1967. The photography was done by Mario Casilli. Lind received more fan mail than any other Playboy Playmate in history.[2][3]

Lind's color likeness traveled to space.[4] The November 1969 Playboy calendar photo of Lind was on Apollo XII. The ground crew for the mission stashed the photo, which they labeled "MAP OF A HEAVENLY BODY" inside a locker aboard the command module Yankee Clipper.[5] Astronaut Richard Gordon, the commander of the Yankee Clipper, put the photo up for auction in 2011[6] for a minimum bid of US$1000 (equivalent to $1,431 in 2025).[7] The winning bid was for US$21,013.20 (equivalent to $30,074 in 2025).[8]

Later career

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Lind appeared in the December 1979 issue of Playmates Forever and, in the early 1980s, in the first "Playmate Playoffs" special issue. Her video appearances for Playboy included Race Horses and a frontal-nudity appearance on a sailing yacht. She was also the subject for "Playmates Revisited" in the March 1996 issue.[citation needed]

As of 1999, Lind resided in Boca Raton, Florida.[9]

Death

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DeDe died February 4, 2020, from ovarian cancer in Boca Raton, Florida, at the age of 72.

Filmography

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  • Playboy: 50 Years of Playmates (2004) (V)
  • Playboy: The Party Continues (2000) (TV)
  • Video Centerfold: Sherry Arnett (1985) (V)
  • Playboy After Dark (First Episode) (1968) (TV)

See also

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References

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DeDe Lind

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
DeDe Lind was an American glamour model and actress best known as Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for August 1967, a feature that attracted more fan mail than any other Playmate in the magazine's history. Her iconic status was further cemented when a color calendar photo of her was secretly smuggled aboard Apollo 12 in 1969 and carried to the Moon, marking a unique footnote in space exploration history. Born Diane Gayle Lind on April 15, 1947, in Los Angeles, California, she began modeling as a teenager after being discovered at age 14 by photographer Leon Beauchemin at a pool in Burbank. She appeared on the covers of TEEN magazine twice, modeled for other teen and movie publications, and took on small acting roles in television series including Leave It to Beaver and The Donna Reed Show. Lind married her high school sweetheart at age 17, with whom she had a son before divorcing, and later remarried and relocated to Florida in the mid-1980s. Following her Playboy debut, Lind participated in events such as the first Playmate Olympics in 1980 and contributed to follow-up pictorials for Playboy in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, while also modeling for European magazines and appearing regularly at Glamourcon conventions. She turned down the lead role in the 1968 film Candy despite an offer. Lind died on February 4, 2020, in Boca Raton, Florida, from ovarian cancer.

Early life

Childhood in Los Angeles

Diane Gayle Lind, later known as DeDe Lind, was born on April 15, 1947, in Los Angeles, California. She spent her early years in Burbank, California, where she grew up alongside an older sister. Her parents were Jack Olof Lind and Jill B. Perry. As an infant, Lind gained early recognition by winning the Better Baby Beauty Contest at the age of one. Details of her childhood beyond this achievement and her family environment remain limited in available records.

Playboy career

Entry into glamour modeling

DeDe Lind's entry into professional modeling occurred during her teenage years in the early 1960s, beginning at age 14 when photographer Leon Beauchemin discovered her at a public swimming pool in Burbank, California. This encounter led to her first modeling assignments, as Beauchemin photographed her extensively and helped launch her career in print media. She soon appeared on the cover of Teen magazine twice within a single year, accompanied by inside features that highlighted her as a rising young model. Lind gained further visibility through teen fan magazines, where she was frequently featured on front and back covers, often alongside popular teen television stars of the era, establishing her presence in youth-oriented fashion and entertainment publications. In addition to her print work, she took on small acting roles on television shows including The Donna Reed Show and Leave It to Beaver, as well as appearing in several commercials during this period. These early opportunities in teen fashion modeling and related media represented her initial steps into the professional modeling industry before her later transition to glamour work. Her childhood win in a Better Baby Beauty Contest at age one, which resulted in a few baby print jobs, had hinted at an early interest in modeling, though her father initially declined further screen test offers.

August 1967 Playmate feature

DeDe Lind was featured as Playboy's Playmate of the Month in the August 1967 issue. The centerfold photography was by Mario Casilli. At age 18, following her divorce and while raising a young son, Lind was encouraged by her photographer friend Leon to test for Playboy, which led to her selection for the pictorial. A notable detail from the shoot involved reshooting the entire centerfold after replacing a Coke prop with Pepsi on set, as Hugh Hefner drank only Pepsi. The feature depicted Lind with a big yellow hair ribbon, contributing to her youthful appearance that made her look to be about thirteen. This presentation emphasized her sunny, girl-next-door charm. Around the time of the Playmate publication, Lind was offered the lead role in the film Candy (1968) but turned it down. The feature's release generated significant fan interest.

Record-breaking fan mail

Following her appearance as the Playmate of the Month in the August 1967 issue of Playboy, DeDe Lind received more fan mail than any other Playmate in the magazine's history. This unprecedented volume of reader response established a record for the publication and underscored her extraordinary popularity at the time. Sources describe the fan mail as overwhelming, with Lind becoming widely recognized as the most popular Playmate ever based on this metric of direct reader engagement. The scale of the correspondence reflected the cultural impact of her feature during the late 1960s, when Playboy's circulation was at its peak and reader interaction was a key indicator of a model's success. No exact figure for the total number of letters is consistently reported across reliable sources, but the record-breaking nature of her fan response is repeatedly noted in accounts of her career.

Space notoriety

Apollo 12 stowaway photo

A photograph of DeDe Lind from a Playboy calendar was secretly carried aboard the Apollo 12 spacecraft during its November 1969 mission to the Moon. The image was placed in the cuff checklist—a small, wrist-worn pad containing mission procedures and notes—used by lunar module pilot Alan Bean by a member of the Kennedy Space Center ground crew as a prank without the astronauts' prior knowledge. The crew discovered the photo during the flight and reportedly referred to it as a "map of a heavenly body," adding a humorous footnote to the historic journey. The stowaway item remained with the returned mission artifacts, and the specific cuff checklist page bearing the taped-on photo was later sold at auction. In November 2011, RR Auction sold the authenticated page for $2,868, with the sale drawing attention to the lighthearted side of NASA's Apollo program. The incident remains a well-known anecdote in space exploration history, illustrating informal human elements amid the mission's technical rigor.

Later career

Post-Playboy modeling and media

Following her August 1967 Playmate appearance, DeDe Lind continued modeling on a selective basis, including extensive work for European magazines where she frequently appeared on covers photographed by well-known photographers. She also contributed to later Playboy pictorials throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, such as the December 1979 "Playmates Forever" issue and the "Playmates Revisited" series captured by Bunny Yeager in South Florida. In the early 1980s, Lind participated in Playboy's inaugural Playmate Playoffs, an event she recalled as enjoyable. She produced her first Playboy video during that period, featuring scenes with her race horses at Santa Anita Race Track alongside jockey Willie Shoemaker and a full-frontal nude sequence aboard a sailing yacht. Later, she appeared as herself in Playboy retrospective specials, including Playboy: The Party Continues (2000) and Playboy: 50 Years of Playmates (2004). Lind's later media involvement included regular appearances as a featured guest at Glamourcon events starting in 1994, which prompted her to establish her own website in the mid-1990s featuring personal photo galleries and videos she produced or collaborated on with her boyfriend, whose photographs were published in various magazines during the late 1980s and 1990s. She emphasized that she remained unmotivated toward ambitious pursuits like acting, opting instead for occasional modeling opportunities while prioritizing personal interests such as her horses and family life.

Death

Ovarian cancer and passing

DeDe Lind died on February 4, 2020, in Boca Raton, Florida, at the age of 72 after a battle with ovarian cancer. Her death was attributed to complications from the disease. Burial records indicate that her remains were cremated. The news of her passing was widely reported in the days following, noting her long-standing fame from her Playboy appearance and the Apollo mission photograph.

Legacy reflections

DeDe Lind remains one of the most recognized Playmates from the 1960s, primarily due to the unprecedented fan mail her August 1967 centerfold generated. Her appearance in Playboy drew more letters than any other Playmate of that decade, establishing her as a particularly beloved figure in the magazine's history and culture. Her notoriety extended into space history through an incident during the Apollo 12 mission, when a November 1969 Playboy calendar photo of her was stowed aboard the spacecraft by the ground crew as a prank. This event has become a well-known anecdote in accounts of NASA's Apollo program, highlighting the intersection of popular culture and space exploration and contributing to her lasting presence in space memorabilia discussions. Overall, Lind's legacy endures through her record-setting popularity within Playboy's golden era and her unique place in the lore of human spaceflight, where her image symbolically transcended Earth.
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