Event: Spelling bee raises about $7,000 for Marshall-Harrison County Literacy Council
Panola College applied a little "wisdom" to win the first spelling bee for Literacy Friday at Marshall Mall.
Dr. Norvell Wisdom correctly spelled "phenomenon" to give the team the victory over the 11 participating teams.
"He has the right name for it," said team member Dr. Jeanne Scott.
Coming in second was the Rotary Club of Marshall team of Ed Carlile, Karen Partee and Mary Kathryn Kirkpatrick.
"I blew it for our team," said Carlile. "They spelled it right for me."
The event was a fund-raiser for the Marshall-Harrison County Literacy Center and raised an estimated $7,000 for the program.
"It was a great day for us," said Shelley Caraway, who also helped spell Panola to the win.
There was friendly competition between the two teams. As Harrison County Judge Wayne McWhorter, on the "Honorable Judges" team along with Ben Z. Grant and Bonnie Leggat, stepped up to spell his first word, someone quipped the only word he knew how to spell now was "budget."
But it didn't stop there. Karen Partee, whose husband City Commissioner Bryan Partee competed on the "City Commissioners" team along with Michael Smith and Katie Jones, said he had been talking it up at home. "He went down. Our team may not have come in first but I still won," she said.
"I'm very happy my wife's team got so far on all those easy words," responded Bryan Partee.
Other participating teams: Coldwell Banker team of Teresa Cathey, Diane Seal and Pam Whisenant; East Texas Baptist University team of Melanie Davis, Dr. Marvin Harris and Cynthia Peterson; KMHT team of Rodney Andrews, Chris Paddie and Pam Purvis; Marshall News Messenger team of Karla DeLuca, Phil Latham and DD Turner; Rotary Club of Marshall Metro team of Edith Certain, Charles Dixon and Cindy Leleko; State Farm Insurance-Tommy Waggoner team of Sherry Hoppman, Melissa Meyers and Jackie Waggoner; and Texas State Technical College team of Ruth Ann Robert, Dr. Timothy Stokes and Vicki Sullivan.
Gayle Weinberg, MRMC Foundation coordinator, was the pronouncer. Wendell Jones, retired Marshall Independent School District administrator; Brian Nichols, ETBU dean of education; and Sam Thomas, retired MISD reading teacher were the judges. Tony Thomas, Marshall Junior High School principal, was the timekeeper and David Simpson, J.H. Moore Elementary School principal, was the master of ceremonies.