The 1939 bee
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette carried the result on 30 May 1939: a 12-year-old girl had won the National Spelling Bee. Rice came from Auburn, a town outside Worcester, and her place in Washington was paid for by the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
Her winning word was canonical - conforming to a rule or canon, from the Greek kanon by way of Latin. At twelve she was among the youngest in a field weighted towards competitors two years older, and the bee of 1939 was the last held before the Second World War forced the competition into suspension.
The life after
Her obituary in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, published in April 2012 under her married name, Riza, records a working life in office and business management that continued until 1996, and a second act that began when she was in her fifties: she started running.
She completed the Boston Marathon three times. The Boston is the oldest annual marathon in the world and, for most of its history, a race that had to be qualified for. A woman who began in her fifties and finished it three times had trained seriously for years.
Two kinds of endurance
The pairing is what makes her record unusual among bee champions. Spelling at national level is a solitary discipline built on daily repetition, and so is marathon running. She did the first at twelve and the second at fifty-something, with half a century of ordinary working life in between.
It is also a corrective to the idea that a childhood title predicts a career. Rice's life was not a spelling career. The bee was one week of it, and the obituary that recorded her death put the marathons alongside the title as facts of equal weight.
What the bee was in 1939
The competition was then in its second decade, assembled by sponsoring newspapers that ran regional bees and sent their champions to Washington. Fields were small by modern standards, rounds were conducted before judges with an unabridged dictionary as the final authority, and the whole event was over in a day or two.
Within three years it was suspended for the war, resuming in 1946. Rice therefore belongs to the last pre-war cohort of champions, a group whose records are among the thinnest in the competition's history.
What is documented, and what is not
Documented: the 1939 championship, the winning word canonical, her age of 12, Auburn in Massachusetts, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette sponsorship, her work as an office and business manager until 1996, the three Boston Marathons, and her death on 18 April 2012 at 85.
Not documented in the sources used here: her school, her family, the prize money, the number of rounds, and the year she started running. The obituary is the only source here that reaches past 1939.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elizabeth Ann Rice | United States | National Spelling Bee champion 1939 | Age 12 |
| Arvind Mahankali | United States | Won the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee at 13 | Age 13 |
| Kerry Close | United States | Won the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee at 13 | Age 13 |
| Hugh Tosteson García | Puerto Rico (United States) | National Spelling Bee champion 1975 | Age 14 |
| Roy Seligman | Bahamas | First speller from the Bahamas to reach the Scripps National Spelling Bee… | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- She won the 1939 National Spelling Bee on canonical at 12
- She was from Auburn, Massachusetts, sponsored by the Worcester Telegram & Gazette
- Her obituary records three Boston Marathons, work as an office and business manager until 1996, and her death on 18 April 2012 at 85
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- Her school, family and the prize money
- When exactly she began running, and her marathon times
- The number of rounds in the 1939 final
Questions people ask about Elizabeth Ann Rice
What word did Elizabeth Ann Rice win on?
Canonical, at the 1939 National Spelling Bee.
How old was she?
She was 12 when she won in May 1939; her birth year is recorded as 1927.
Did she run the Boston Marathon?
Yes - three times, having taken up running in her fifties, according to her obituary.
What did she do for a living?
She worked as an office and business manager until 1996.
When did she die?
On 18 April 2012, in Worcester, Massachusetts, at 85. Her obituary appeared under her married name, Riza.
Where was she from?
Auburn, Massachusetts, near Worcester. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette sponsored her place at the national bee.
Is Elizabeth Ann Rice on Wikipedia?
Her name appears in listings of National Spelling Bee champions. No biography of her is among the sources used here.
Was 1939 the last bee before the war?
The competition was suspended during the Second World War and resumed in 1946, which places her among the last pre-war champions.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Elizabeth’s story?
Which word won Elizabeth Ann Rice the 1939 title?
What did she take up in her fifties?
How many times did she complete the Boston Marathon?
Sources
- 12-Year-Old Girl Is Winner In National Spelling Bee — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1939-05-30
- Elizabeth Ann (Rice) Riza, 85 — Worcester Telegram & Gazette (obituary), 2012-04-21
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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