Eighteen words
United Press International's account, carried by the Palm Beach Post on 5 June 1970, was headed "Practice Pays for Teen Spelling Champ" — a headline that gives away the answer to the question every bee produces. The Associated Press, in the Sarasota Journal of 4 June, followed the winners to New York under the headline "Spelling Bee Winners Hies To City Sights".
Her opponent in the final duel was Tom Moe Jr. of Denver. Eighteen words between two competitors means nine rounds each after the rest of the field has gone out, with the word lists thinning and the difficulty climbing. The word that finished it was croissant — French, and a trap for any speller who spells what the ear hears.
The prize
A thousand dollars and a trip to New York was the reward in 1970. Adjusted for the era it was a substantial sum for a fourteen-year-old, but the structure of the prize is the interesting part: money plus a trip, the same shape the bee had used for decades, designed to be reported in a local paper and photographed.
The New York excursion is the part that recurs across this collection. Champions of the 1950s and 1960s were routinely taken to the city and put in front of a television audience, which is how a spelling competition sustained national attention long before cable coverage existed.
North Carolina's last
The record used here notes that no North Carolina speller has won since. That is a long gap in a competition that crowns someone every year, and it is the sort of statistic local papers revive whenever a state competitor reaches the national rounds. The Times-News of Burlington did exactly that in May 2013, in a piece celebrating the ability to spell.
State droughts of this kind have less to do with talent than with infrastructure: which newspapers ran regional bees, which school systems took them seriously, and whether a coaching culture ever took hold.
What is documented — and what is not
Documented: a win at the 1970 National Spelling Bee on croissant, aged fourteen, from Mount Airy, North Carolina; an eighteen-word final duel against Tom Moe Jr. of Denver; a prize of $1,000 and a trip to New York; wire coverage on 4 and 5 June 1970; and a 2013 local retrospective in the Times-News.
Not documented in the sources used here: her date of birth; her school and grade; her education and career; her married name, if any; and anything about her adult life. As with most champions of that decade, the archive holds the final and almost nothing else.
Vingt questions, huit minutes au chronomètre et un centile mesuré face à tous ceux qui l’ont passé. Sans inscription.
Passer le test de QI →Why 1970s finals ran so long
Two-person duels of eighteen words were common in the era because the word lists were finite and the preparation was already formidable. When both finalists had covered the same material, rounds continued until one of them met something outside it — which could take an hour.
Modern rules changed that, adding written tie-breakers and, eventually, accepting multiple champions rather than letting a final run indefinitely. Reading a 1970 result therefore requires a small adjustment: the eighteen-word duel was not a curiosity but the system working as designed, and the child who survived it had outlasted an opponent as well-prepared as she was. That is a different achievement from spelling one hard word correctly, and the contemporaneous coverage, to its credit, made the duel the story.
| Personne | Pays | Étape | Âge / Donnée |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arvind Mahankali | États-Unis | A gagné le Scripps National Spelling Bee 2013 à 13 ans | 13 ans |
| Kerry Close | États-Unis | A gagné le Scripps National Spelling Bee 2006 à 13 ans | 13 ans |
| Libby Childress | États-Unis | Gagnante du concours national d'orthographe 1970 | 14 ans |
| Hugh Tosteson García | Porto Rico (États-Unis) | Champion du concours national d'orthographe 1975 | 14 ans |
| Roy Seligman | Bahamas | Premier candidat des Bahamas à atteindre le Scripps National Spelling Bee... | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- Won the 1970 National Spelling Bee on croissant, aged fourteen, from Mount Airy, North Carolina.
- The final was an eighteen-word duel against Tom Moe Jr. of Denver.
- The prize was $1,000 and a trip to New York.
- Reported by UPI and the Associated Press on 4 and 5 June 1970.
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- Her date of birth, school and grade are not published in the sources used here.
- Nothing is documented about her education, career or adult life.
- The claim that she is North Carolina's last champion is carried from the research record.
- The 2013 Times-News piece is a general retrospective rather than a profile of her.
Questions people ask about Libby Childress
What word did Libby Childress win on?
Croissant, at the 1970 National Spelling Bee.
How old was she?
Fourteen, which implies a birth year around 1955 or 1956. No source used here gives a date of birth.
How long was the final?
The duel with Tom Moe Jr. of Denver ran eighteen words before croissant settled it.
What did she win?
$1,000 and a trip to New York.
Has North Carolina had a champion since?
Not according to the record used here, which describes her as the state's last national champion.
Where is Libby Childress now?
No source used here reports on her adult life, and this page makes no claim about where she is now.
Is Libby Childress on Wikipedia?
There is no separate article about her. Her name leads to Wikipedia's article on the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Libby’s story?
Which word won the 1970 National Spelling Bee?
How many words did the final duel run?
What was the prize?
Sources
- Practice Pays for Teen Spelling Champ — Palm Beach Post (UPI), 1970-06-05
- Spelling Bee Winners Hies To City Sights — Sarasota Journal (AP), 1970-06-04
- Celebrating the ability to spell — Times-News (Burlington, N.C.), 2013-05-30
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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