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Barbara Figarola Weber, mom of ‘Bachelor’ star Peter Weber, was a Chicago pageant queen in the ’70s
By TRACY SWARTZ
CHICAGO TRIBUNE |
JAN 02, 2020 | 8:58 AM
The family of "The Bachelor" star Peter Weber -- Barbara Figarola Weber (from left), Peter Weber and Jack Weber -- were featured on "The Bachelorette" in 2019.
The family of "The Bachelor" star Peter Weber -- Barbara Figarola Weber (from left), Peter Weber and Jack Weber -- were featured on "The Bachelorette" in 2019. (John Fleenor/ABC)
Hannah Brown wasn’t the only pageant queen on “The Bachelorette” last season. Contestant and pilot Peter Weber revealed his mom, Barbara Figarola Weber, was also a pageant winner.
“You know my mom was Miss Illinois,” Weber told Brown, who was Miss Alabama USA 2018. “Yeah, she was a pageant queen.”
Viewers got to meet Figarola Weber when Brown visited Weber’s hometown to help her decide the Season 15 winner. Now Weber is the new “Bachelor,” and his mother likely will be prominently featured on his season, which is scheduled to premiere at 7 p.m. Monday on WLS-Ch. 7. Here are five things to know about Figarola Weber, who declined a Tribune interview request via ABC network representatives.
1. Figarola Weber, 62, was born in Havana, Cuba, and immigrated to the United States in February 1961 at the age of 3. An address on Sunnyside Avenue in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood was the U.S. residence listed on her immigration paperwork.
2. She graduated from St. Mary of the Lake grammar school in the Buena Park neighborhood in 1970 and Immaculata High School in Buena Park in 1974. Immaculata, an all-female Catholic school, closed in 1981. Figarola Weber became a U.S. citizen on July 4, 1976, at the age of 18, records show. She was living in a condo on Sheridan Road in Lakeview at the time.
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3. The following month, Figarola Weber was named queen of Chicago’s Lakefront Festival. She was awarded the title at a Chicago Yacht Club event, according to Tribune reporting at the time. Contestants were judged on beauty, intelligence, personality and enthusiasm.
As part of her royal duties, Figarola Weber and Mayor Richard J. Daley greeted King Neptune on Aug. 14, 1976, before the start of the grand Neptune Parade, which kicked off the 10-day lakefront festival. Daley died four months later, on Dec. 20, 1976.
Chicago's Lakefront Festival Queen winner is Barbara Figarola, of Chicago, on Aug. 6, 1976. Figarola won the Festival Queen title at a Chicago Yacht Club event. (John Bartley/Chicago Tribune)
4. Figarola Weber was a member of the Chicago Honey Bears squad that cheered on Bears players, but she left before the end of the 1978 season because she was named Miss Illinois World-America. As Miss Illinois, she was one of 51 contestants who vied for the Miss World-America crown and a $10,000 prize from Merle Norman Cosmetics in Huntsville, Ala. Debra Jean Freeze, of North Carolina, ended up winning that title.
Miss Illinois World-America, Barbara Figarola of Chicago, is one of 51 contestants in Huntsville, Ala., vying for the Miss World-America beauty crown and a $10,000 prize from Merle Norman Cosmetics in 1978. (File photo)
5. Figarola Weber joined United Airlines in 1985 and worked there until 1996 before taking a leave of absence. The way the younger Peter Weber tells it: “My dad was a pilot as well. My mom was a flight attendant, and she was on his flight one time. He was walking back to the cockpit, and he walked past her, and she just saw his butt. And she goes to her friend, she’s like, ‘That’s the guy I’m gonna marry.’” The couple had two sons, Peter and Jack.
Their mom eventually became a real estate agent, and their family now calls Westlake Village, in the Los Angeles area, home.
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