Deification
The Washington Post's feature of 9 June 1978, "The Spelling Bee: Angst to Zeal", placed the competition in the mood of its era — the nervous parents, the long afternoons, the peculiar theatre of children being examined in public. The champion that year was a thirteen-year-old from Topeka, Kansas, and the runner-up was Lyn Sue Kahng.
Deification is a word built entirely from Latin parts: deus, the god-making suffix, the standard English ending. A speller who has learned how Latin abstractions assemble does not need to have met the word before, which is the whole premise of serious preparation.
Everything after Topeka
The Lawrence Journal-World revisited her in March 1998 under the headline "Bee Spelled Victory for Local Resident". The record used here sets out the intervening path: National Merit and Presidential Scholar, an English degree from Yale, and a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Kansas.
TIME's survey of past champions in May 2016 found her at 51 in Topeka, working as a clinical psychologist with a part-time private practice, serving on the city's school board, and running a support group for transgender teenagers. Bee champions who stay in their home towns and work with children there are a recognisable type; few of the surveys capture the detail this clearly.
Back to the bee
She also coaches local spellers. It is the second instance in this collection of a champion returning to the competition as a trainer — a pattern that says something about what winning at thirteen does. The knowledge is specialised, hard-won and otherwise useless, and passing it on is the only way to spend it.
There is a further logic in her case. A clinical psychologist coaching competitors is unusually well equipped for the part of the job that has nothing to do with words: managing a child's nerve at a microphone, and the aftermath when the answer is wrong.
What is documented — and what is not
Documented: a win at the 1978 National Spelling Bee on deification at thirteen, with Lyn Sue Kahng as runner-up; her standing as Kansas's third national champion; National Merit and Presidential Scholar status; an English degree from Yale and a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Kansas; and TIME's 2016 record of a Topeka practice, school-board service, a support group for transgender teenagers, and coaching of local spellers.
Not documented in the sources used here: her date of birth; her school in Topeka; the length of the 1978 final; and anything after 2016. The 1998 Journal-World piece and the 2016 TIME survey are the two follow-ups this page rests on.
Why the follow-ups are scarce
The bee generates one intense week of coverage per champion and then loses interest. Most of what is known about winners from the 1960s and 1970s comes from two kinds of document: the wire copy of the final, and an occasional anniversary feature in a local paper written twenty years later because a reporter remembered.
That is why a champion like Peg McCarthy, with a 1978 win, a 1998 local retrospective and a 2016 national survey, is exceptionally well recorded by the standards of this collection. It is also why the honest form for these pages is to mark what the archive holds and refuse to invent the rest. A national title at thirteen is a documented fact. What a person builds in the forty years afterwards is usually not, and here, unusually, some of it is.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peg McCarthy | United States | Winning the 1978 National Spelling Bee | Age 13 |
| 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 1978 National Spelling Bee on deification at thirteen; runner-up Lyn Sue Kahng.
- From Topeka, Kansas, and reported as the state's third national champion.
- TIME, May 2016: clinical psychologist in Topeka, aged 51, with a part-time practice and a school-board seat.
- Revisited by the Lawrence Journal-World in March 1998.
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- Her date of birth and school are not published in the sources used here.
- The National Merit and Presidential Scholar honours and her degrees are carried from the research record.
- The length and round count of the 1978 final are not recorded here.
- Nothing is documented about her after 2016.
Questions people ask about Peg McCarthy
What word did Peg McCarthy win on?
Deification, at the 1978 National Spelling Bee.
How old was she?
Thirteen, which implies a birth year around 1964 or 1965. No source used here gives a date of birth.
What does Peg McCarthy do now?
TIME reported in 2016 that she was a clinical psychologist in Topeka with a part-time private practice, a seat on the city's school board, and a support group for transgender teenagers.
Does she still work with the spelling bee?
Yes. The record used here says she coaches local spellers.
Where did she study?
Yale, in English, followed by a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Kansas.
Who was the 1978 runner-up?
Lyn Sue Kahng.
Is Peg McCarthy 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 Peg’s story?
Which word won the 1978 National Spelling Bee?
What is her profession?
Which state's third champion was she?
Sources
- The Spelling Bee: Angst to Zeal — The Washington Post, 1978-06-09
- Bee Spelled Victory for Local Resident — Lawrence Journal-World, 1998-03-29
- Past Winners of the Scripps National Spelling Bee: Where They Are Now — TIME, 2016-05-25
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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