She was selected as Playboy's 35th Anniversary Playmate after a nationwide search. She was paid $35,000 for her centerfold. Several years later, she appeared in one of Playboy's Wet & Wild home videos.
Petra Charlotte Verkaik (pronounced PAYT-rah ver-KIKE; born November 4, 1966, in Los Angeles, California) is a model. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she attended acting classes. She needed a head shot and did a trade with a Photographer to get free headshots in exchange for modeling for him. The modeling photographs were clothed. The Photographer sent her photographs to Playboy who called her to work with them. In an interview with the Las Vegas Sun, Verkaik expressed that she never wanted to do nude modeling and that she thought "all those girls were whores and sluts." Three months later, she was Playmate of the Month for December 1989 after first appearing in the Great Playmate Hunt Special Edition in February 1989.
Tawnni Cable (born 1 May 1967 in Salem, Oregon) is an American model and Actress. She was chosen as Playboy's Playmate of the Month for June, 1989 and has appeared in numerous Playboy videos. She played a small role in an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and appeared with four other Playmates on an all-star episode of Family Feud.
Erika Eleniak (born September 29, 1969) is an American Playboy Playmate and Actress, perhaps best known for her role in Baywatch as Shauni McClain. Eleniak had several roles in television before her Playmate selection. Playboy featured her on two covers and later as the centerfold in the July 1989 issue.
Karin and Mirjam van Breeschooten (born 15 November 1970 in Rotterdam, Netherlands) are twin sisters who were Playboy magazine's Playmates of the Month for September 1989.
Tenison appeared as the Playmate of the Month in the November 1989 issue of Playboy magazine and was subsequently named Playmate of the Year for 1990, the first PMOY of African American descent. In 2001, she was selected as one of the ten sexiest women of the year by the readers of Black Men magazine.
Verkaik started her own production company in 1995, called Pin-Up Girls, making her the first Playboy model to start her own production company instead of producing videos strictly through Playboy. Pin-Up Girls produced videos and calendars. Starting the company left her $60,000 in debt. In 1997, she was named Playboy Model of the Year.
In 2002, Verkaik attended the Foothill High School prom in Tustin, California, with a high school student named Toby Hocking. Hocking wrote a college essay, and Verkaik was given it by a friend who told her that he couldn't get a prom date. Verkaik read the college essay and offered to be Hocking's date, which garnered publicity. The headmaster of Foothill High School had no issue with Verkaik being Hocking's date, provided she did not wear anything "strapless or sheer".
On January 22, 2010, she was found dead by her husband, James Thompson, in her home in Westlake, Ohio, of an apparent drug overdose.
