Molly Dieveney: 1982 Spelling Bee Champion, and Life After

Biography

The winning word

United Press International moved the story on 3 June 1982: Molly Dieveney, a twelve-year-old sixth-grader from Denver, Colorado, had won the National Spelling Bee. The Christian Science Monitor's account, published the following day under the headline "F-a-m-e, f-o-r-t-u-n-e at US spelling bee", places the win in the wider scene of a competition that was already a national institution.

The winning word was psoriasis. It is a well-chosen finisher — Greek in origin, unphonetic in English, and almost impossible to reconstruct from sound alone without knowing where the silent p sits.

The neighbour who coached her

The detail that makes the 1982 win more than luck is who lived next door. Her coach was the mother of Jacques Bailly, who had won the national bee in 1980. A household two doors away had already produced a champion and knew exactly what the preparation required: not vocabulary drilling but root-language study, the Latin and Greek and German that let a speller reconstruct a word never seen before.

Sixth-graders rarely win. The field is dominated by seventh- and eighth-graders with two or three national appearances behind them, and a twelve-year-old taking the title in the sixth grade implies an unusually efficient preparation — which is, precisely, what a champion's mother next door would supply.

What she did next

She studied East Asian studies at Yale and became a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. TIME, revisiting past champions in May 2016, listed her as Molly Baker, then 46 and living in Wayne, Pennsylvania, working as "chief operating officer and writer at an investment management firm".

The record also carries a coda the bee's own historians enjoy: she was later diagnosed with psoriasis, the condition whose name won her the title. That detail is carried here from the research record's reading of TIME rather than from a passage re-read for this page, and it is flagged accordingly.

What is documented — and what is not

Documented: a win at the 1982 National Spelling Bee on the word psoriasis; her age of twelve and her status as a Denver sixth-grader; the UPI report of 3 June 1982 and the Christian Science Monitor's account of 4 June; her coaching by the mother of the 1980 champion; a Yale degree in East Asian studies; work as a Wall Street Journal reporter; and her role in 2016 as chief operating officer and writer at an investment management firm in Wayne, Pennsylvania.

Not documented in the sources used here: her date of birth; her school in Denver; the runner-up and the length of the final; her married surname's full form beyond the TIME listing as Molly Baker; and anything after 2016.

What the bee actually tests

The National Spelling Bee is not a memory contest, though it is usually described as one. No child memorises the dictionary. What champions learn is the architecture of English borrowing — which languages contribute which letter patterns, how a Greek root behaves when it passes through Latin, what a word's stated language of origin permits and forbids. Given that, an unfamiliar word becomes a problem with a method rather than a guess.

That is why the skill transfers. Reporters, lawyers and researchers all do a version of the same work: taking an unfamiliar thing apart to see which known pieces it is made from. Molly Dieveney's route — bee, Yale, newsroom, executive office — is less a swerve than a straight line, and it is one of the better-documented answers to the question every bee produces: what happens to these children afterwards?

Achievement Timeline

Molly Dieveney — every milestone on this page, placed by age.

1982-06-03

Wins the National Spelling Bee at twelWins the National Spelling Bee at twelve on the word psoriasis; UPI reports the result.

1982-06-04

The Christian Science Monitor publisheThe Christian Science Monitor publishes its account of the bee.

1980

Her neighbour's son, Jacques Bailly, hHer neighbour's son, Jacques Bailly, had won the national title two years earlier.

2016-05-25

TIME lists her, as Molly Baker, aged 4TIME lists her, as Molly Baker, aged 46 in Wayne, Pennsylvania, working in investment management.

Historical Comparison

Person	Country	Milestone	Age / Stat
Molly Dieveney	United States	Winning the 1982 National Spelling Bee	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

Won the 1982 National Spelling Bee on the word psoriasis, aged twelve (UPI, 3 June 1982).
A sixth-grader from Denver, Colorado, at the time.
Coached by the mother of 1980 champion Jacques Bailly, her next-door neighbour.
Listed by TIME in 2016 as chief operating officer and writer at an investment management firm in Wayne, Pennsylvania.

? Unverified, disputed or wrong

Her date of birth and Denver school are not published in the sources used here.
The runner-up and the length of the 1982 final are not recorded on this page.
The detail that she was later diagnosed with psoriasis is carried from the research record's reading of TIME and was not re-read here.
Nothing is documented about her after 2016.

Questions people ask about Molly Dieveney

What word did Molly Dieveney win on?

Psoriasis, at the 1982 National Spelling Bee.

How old was she?

Twelve, and a sixth-grader from Denver, Colorado, which implies a birth year around 1969 or 1970. No source used here gives a date of birth.

Who coached her?

Her next-door neighbour, the mother of Jacques Bailly, who had won the national bee in 1980.

What is Molly Dieveney's name now?

TIME listed her in 2016 as Molly Baker.

Where is Molly Dieveney now?

TIME reported in May 2016 that she was 46 and living in Wayne, Pennsylvania, working as chief operating officer and writer at an investment management firm. Nothing later is documented here.