Gwendolynne Larson
Donna Breshears gives a quiet smile after hearing she spelled "inestimable" correctly to win the first-ever Lyon County Senior Spelling Bee.
Donna Breshears had never competed in a spelling bee before she showed up Saturday morning for the Lyon County Senior Spelling Bee.
Still, she had some experience under her belt. She’d helped her son, John, study for school bees and watched him compete three times in the Lyon County Spelling Bee.
“It’s harder watching my son,” she said, shortly after winning the first-ever senior spelling bee and earning the right to represent Lyon County in the state bee in Salina.
Breshears survived 11 full rounds of the bee before third-place speller Dee Bosiljevac dropped out on the word “unanimous.” That left just Breshears and Mary Fisher. When Fisher faltered on the word “irreparable,” Breshears had her chance. She successfully spelled “irreparable” before moving on to “inestimable.” She gave a quiet smile when she heard “correct” from the judge.
“I’ve always enjoyed spelling,” Breshears said after the event. “But I’ve never been in a spelling bee. This is my very first.”
For her first spelling bee, Breshears said she didn’t study a lot, although she looked over the list of tough words sent to contestants by the county’s department of aging, which sponsored the event with lots of help from volunteers.
“I watch for errors in people’s spelling and read a lot,” Breshears said.
In all, Breshears waded through 65 words to come out on top. The day started with all 20 contestants taking a written spelling test of 50 words pronounced and used in sentences by Carol Strickland. The words included some like “chiffon” — a type of cake or fabric — that might seem foreign to grade school spellers but were normal usage for anyone acquainted with the 1940s and ’50s.
The original 50-word list didn’t deter many in the group, according to Norma Karhoff.
“We have perfect papers and some who just missed one or two,” she told the crowd.
One of those words might have been “kookaburra,” the most unusual word on the written test. It didn’t throw Breshears, though, who remembered singing in Girl Scouts the kookaburra song about an Australian bird.
At 56, Breshears was one of the younger competitors, who had to be 50 years old to register. At the other end was 101-year-old Neva Watts, who came with a group from Holiday Resort. A friend from the nursing home, 88-year-old Alberta Risley, said she remembered competing in spelling bees at school. She also enjoys the bees conducted at Holiday Resort.
Breshears now heads to Salina for the state bee Oct. 11. If she wins there, she’ll represent Kansas at the national bee in Wyoming. For the remaining spellers, there’s time to study for next year’s bee.
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