Obituary: B.C.’s Pamela Gordon was Canada’s first Playboy playmate in 1962

Vancouver has had some famous Playboy playmates, such as Pamela Anderson and Dorothy Stratten.

But the city’s — and Canada’s — first Playboy model dropped from the public eye after she appeared in the March 1962 issue of the magazine.

Newspaper accounts at the time said Pamela Gordon was moving to Chicago to work as a Playboy bunny at the Playboy mansion. But after that, nada.

It turns out she had returned to B.C., and in recent years she lived in Mission. After a bout of pneumonia, she had a heart attack, and died Jan. 25 at the Abbotsford Regional Hospital. She would have turned 80 on Feb. 10.

Pam Gordon “had become very private” after her brush with fame, and in recent years had become a Christian, said her daughter.