Posted 5/23/01
Can you spell daguerreotype? Senior spelling bee winner is Harold Nelson
Esther Schmidt (on the left) was the hostess for the finals of the senior spelling bee in North Branch this week, giving the contestants words from an 1893 spelling book. The ìeasyî words were names of vegetables at the grade three level. They worked through 5th-grade words - names of animals- to political words and then to more difficult words. Harold Nelson of North Branch was the sole survivor at the end of the spell-off round and only missed the final word - daguerreotype (an early photograph produced on a silver or silver-covered copper plate). He was pronounced the winner. Schmidt provided the rest of the contestants, including seniors from Rush City and Lindstrom, with candy bars as a consolation prize. Schmidt was assisted in judging by Muriel Kennedy and Bev Otterness.