Ward Randall: Illinois's First Spelling Bee Champion, 1931

Biography

The word that decided it

Foulard is French, and names a soft silk or the scarf and necktie fabric made from it. The trap is the ou, which an English ear hears as a simple oo and an English speller is tempted to write accordingly.

That is exactly what happened. The runner-up, Charles Michel, spelled it folard and was eliminated. Randall then spelled it correctly and took the title, which is how the bee's rules work: the word that ends one competitor is offered to the next.

A thousand dollars in 1931

The Associated Press headline made the prize the story: a boy had won a $1,000 prize by spelling foulard the right way. In the second year of the Depression that was a sum with real weight - more than many American families saw in cash across a year.

The prize scale of the early bees is often forgotten. The competition was funded by newspapers as a circulation exercise, and the money on the table was part of what made regional bees worth entering and worth reporting.

First for Illinois, and last for 54 years

Randall was the first speller from Illinois to win the national bee. No other did until 1985, a gap of fifty-four years in a state with one of the largest school populations in the country.

Gaps of that kind are usually explained by sponsorship rather than by ability. Where a local newspaper ran and funded a regional bee, champions appeared; where the sponsorship lapsed, a state could go decades without a competitor in the final rounds.

White Hall

White Hall is a small town in Greene County, in west-central Illinois, which in 1931 was a farming and pottery district. A 12-year-old from there arriving in Washington and leaving with a thousand dollars was a story the wires carried nationally, from the Evening Independent in Florida to the Schenectady Gazette in New York.

Both of those papers ran it on 27 May 1931, one under the prize and one under the state. Between them they are the record of his win that survives in this file.

What the early bees were like

The competition in 1931 was six years old in its national form. Sponsoring newspapers ran regional contests, sent their champions to Washington, and the whole event was resolved in a day before a panel of judges with a dictionary.

The archive is correspondingly thin. Wire copy of a few hundred words, printed in dozens of papers with different headlines, is generally all that survives of a champion from this period - and for many of them, nothing at all survives afterwards.

What is documented, and what is not

Documented: the 1931 championship, the winning word foulard, the $1,000 prize, his age of 12, White Hall in Illinois, the runner-up Charles Michel's misspelling of the same word, and his standing as Illinois's first champion and its only one until 1985.

Not documented in the sources used here: his school, his family, the number of rounds, which newspaper sponsored him, and anything about his life after May 1931.

Achievement Timeline

1931

Reaches the National Spelling Bee finaReaches the National Spelling Bee final in Washington at 12

1931

Wins the title and $1,000 on foulard oWins the title and $1,000 on foulard on 26 May, after Charles Michel spells it folard

1985

Illinois produces its next national spIllinois produces its next national spelling champion, fifty-four years later

Historical Comparison

Person	Country	Milestone	Age / Stat
Ward Randall	United States	National Spelling Bee champion 1931, the first from Illinois	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

He won the 1931 National Spelling Bee on foulard at 12, for a $1,000 prize
Runner-up Charles Michel misspelled the same word as folard
He was the first champion from Illinois, and the state produced no other until 1985

? Unverified, disputed or wrong

His school, family and sponsoring newspaper
The number of rounds and the size of the field
Anything about his life after May 1931

Questions people ask about Ward Randall

What word did Ward Randall win on?

Foulard, a lightweight silk fabric, at the 1931 National Spelling Bee.

How old was he?

He was 12 when he won in May 1931; his birth year is recorded as 1919.

How much did he win?

$1,000, which the Associated Press made the subject of its headline.

How did the runner-up lose?

Charles Michel spelled the same word folard, omitting the u.

Why is his win significant for Illinois?

He was the state's first national champion, and no other speller from Illinois won until 1985.

Where was he from?

White Hall, in Greene County, west-central Illinois.

Where is Ward Randall now?

No source used here records anything about his life after 1931.

Is Ward Randall on Wikipedia?

His name appears in listings of National Spelling Bee champions. No biography of him is among the sources used here.

Quick quiz: how well do you know Ward’s story?

What is a foulard?

How did the runner-up spell it?

How long was it before Illinois had another champion?

Now test yourself: the free 8-minute IQ test →

Sources

Boy Wins a $1,000 Prize By Spelling 'Foulard' In Right Way — Evening Independent (AP), 1931-05-27
Illinois Youth Wins National Spelling Bee — Schenectady Gazette, 1931-05-27

Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.

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