Robbin Mele Gaudieri, who, as Robbin Bain, embodied traditional women’s roles as the winner of a beauty contest designed to promote beer in 1959 and later as the “Today Girl,” handling fashion and beauty segments, on the popular NBC-TV morning show, died on Oct. 21 in Southampton, N.Y., on Long Island. She was 87.

Her daughter Lara McLanahan said the cause was breast cancer.

In 1959, she was elected Miss Rheingold, representing what was then the most popular beer in the New York region and was also sold in Pennsylvania and throughout New England. She defeated five other finalists in an election that the brewer said attracted 24 million votes.

As Miss Rheingold, she received $50,000 (about $530,000 in today’s dollars) and spent a year making appearances in the United States and Europe. She also starred in newspaper ads in which she was seen in a kitchen during a party, outdoors at a barbecue and in front of a Christmas tree, among other places.

An ad that ran early in her reign said, “You’ll soon be seeing Robbin Bain almost everywhere you look, such an attractive reminder of the popular beer she represents — Rheingold Extra Dry!”

In 2000, she recalled the qualities that were sought in a Miss Rheingold.

“It was not a body thing,” she told The Daily News of New York. “Personality and wholesomeness were very important. You had to look very approachable to the guys sitting at the bar or going to the supermarket.”