As she matured, people commented on Tate's beauty; she began entering beauty pageants, winning the title of "Miss Richland" in Washington in 1959. She spoke of her ambition to study psychiatry, and also stated her intention to compete in the "Miss Washington" pageant in 1960; however, before she could do either, her father received orders to be stationed in Italy. With her family relocating to Verona, Tate learned that she had become a local celebrity owing to the publication of a photograph of her in a swimsuit on the cover of the military newspaper "Stars and Stripes". She discovered a kinship with other students at the American school she attended in nearby Vicenza, recognizing that their backgrounds and feelings of separation were similar to her own, and for the first time in her life began to form lasting friendships.