CHEYENNE, Wyo.—It took Michael Petrina Jr. 51 years to finally win a national spelling bee.
Petrina, of Arlington, Va., bested 45 other spellers older than 50 to win the AARP’s annual National Spelling Bee Saturday in Cheyenne, Wyo. The 64-year-old’s winning word was “woad,” a plant whose leaves yield a blue dye.
AARP spokeswoman Joanne Bowlby says Petrina won his state’s national spelling bee when he was 13, but then lost at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
In second place Saturday was 55-year-old Scott Firebaugh of Knoxville, Tenn., and in third place was 66-year-old Gil Couts of Bigfork, Mont. Deborah George, 56, of Livermore, Colo., finished in fifth place.
Petrina won $500, a trophy, and dictionary kit.
The AARP bee started in 1996.
