Author
Howard Gensler is a veteran journalist who’s worked at the Philadelphia Daily News, TV Guide and the Philadelphia Inquirer and is a founding editor of bettorsinsider.com.
PA No Slouch When It Comes to Producing Spelling Bee Winners
The 95th Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee is Wednesday, May 31, and one word that seven winners sure know how to spell is P-E-N-N-S-Y-L-V-A-N-I-A.
Only Texas and Ohio have produced more winners.
The Big Three in National Spelling Bee winners surfaced as PennStakes.com took a break from covering casinos and PA sportsbooks to focus on another annual competition.
Using the list of Scripps National Spelling Bee champions, we determined which states are home to the most champions.
So, here you go: PennStakes.com – your source for PA online casinos – looks at the home state of each winner of the National Spelling Bee.
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Home State of the Spelling Champs
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How Pennsylvania Came in 3rd
The first Pennsylvanian to take home the top prize was William Cashore, of Norristown, back in 1954. Cashore took other spellers to church with the word “transept.”
Two years later, in 1956, Melody Sachko, of Pittsburgh won, correctly, letter by letter, building “condominium.”
It was a 15-year gap to the state’s next winner, Jonathan Knisely, of Philadelphia, who pulled the wool over the competition with the winning word “shalloon.”
John Paola, of Pittsburgh, won the 50th Bee in 1997, exchanging second place for first thanks to the word “cambist.”
Jon Pennington, of Harrisburg, won in 1986, brushing off “odontalgia.”
Pennsylvania went back-to-back with Pittsburgh’s Stephanie Petit in 1987. She survived “staphylococci.”
The state’s last winner was in 2011, when Sukanya Roy. of Wilkes-Barre, put the audience through hair-raising suspense by spelling “cymotrichous.”
Cymotrichous. And to think that in 1940, the winning word was “therapy.”
You never know what words you are going to get on PennStakes.com. But you have our word we will give you first-rate coverage of sports betting and PA casino apps.
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