Throwback Thursday: Yolanda Foster, Little Dutch Girl

Malibu’s finest matriarch always exemplified model behavior.

By Pat Cauley Dec 19, 2013, 3:11 PM ET

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How to Watch

Watch The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills on Bravo Tuesdays at 8/7c and next day on Peacock. Catch up on the Bravo App.

Ever wonder what our Bravolebs looked like before they were Bravolebs? Each Thursday, we'll celebrate #TBT and dig through the archives for a vintage photo from the past—or revisit a memorable moment from one of our shows—and share some back story on the picture. This week, we re-visit a baby photo of Yolanda Foster.

Coming from humble beginnings in bucolic Holland, if Yolanda Foster has taught us anything, it’s that when life gives you lemons, you grow a lemon orchard.

In this 1960s throwback, we see Yolanda pictured with her older brother and best friend Leo. Upon her father’s untimely death when she was seven, a young Yolanda took it upon herself to provide for her family through any means possible.

"I so vividly remember that winter day of the funeral when my feet were nervously dangling off the church bench as I looked at my devastated mother, brother and family. In my little mind, I kept telling myself not to cry and to be strong. I truly believe that at that particular moment, an unexplainable power came over me as I consciously decided that I was going to be the provider for our family,” she says.

Grunt work on the farm and washing dishes at a local Asian restaurant eventually led to a rare discovery by Eileen Ford, bolstering Yolanda to the top of the ranks at Ford Models. Regardless of where you stand on Housewives drama, one thing we can all agree on is Yolanda’s fight back attitude and hard work has paid off. Now the wife and homemaker of 16-time Grammy winning music producer David Foster, Yolanda prides herself on running a tight ship at their Malibu mansion.

"I wake up at 6:30am with my kids everyday, make breakfast, pack lunches, and drive them to school. Living in a big house might seem glamorous to most people but to someone like me that grew up in a very small 1-bathroom house, it sometimes gets overwhelming because I am a perfectionist. Running staff is stressful because some days you just don’t want to have to tell people what to do, but with a big property like ours, there is always something that needs my attention,” she says.