Historical Albion Michigan
By Frank Passic

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Any photos not otherwise credited are from the personal collection of Frank Passic, Albion Historian.

1964 7th GRADE SPELLING CONTEST

Morning Star, July 19, 2016, pg. 4

Those of us who attended the Albion Public Schools have memories of the events and rituals that occurred on an annual basis at each grade level. One of them was the 7th grade spelling bee (contest). Students in that grade entered competition in class, and eliminations brought the total down to around 30 finalists. A "spell down" final was held at Washington Gardner High School, and first-second-third winners received trophies.

The 1964 spelling bee was held on May 1 of that year, and was supervised by Mrs. Lucille Moore, 7th grade reading teacher. The moderator for the event was Mrs. Eleanor Hart, senior high school English teacher, who pronounced the words to the students during the competition. The winning student that year was Raelle Corliss. Raelle successfully spelled the word "imaginary," that had just been missed by the second place winner, Mary Mac Moore. The third place winner was Carmen Garcia.

From our Historical Notebook this week we present a photograph of the happy winners of the 1964 7th grade spelling bee. Left to right: Mrs. Eleanor Hart, Mary Mac Moore, Raelle Corliss, Carmen Garcia, and supervisor Lucile Moore. How many of our readers ever participated in their 7th grade spelling bee?


The happy winners of the 1964 7th grade spelling bee contest.
Mrs. Eleanor Hart, Mary Mac Moore, Raelle Corliss, Carmen Garcia, and supervisor Lucile Moore.

Next: HARRINGTON SCHOOL OPENED IN 1957

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All text copyright, 2026 © all rights reserved Frank Passic  |  Artwork copyright Maggie LaNoue © 2026

Frank Passic Albion Historian Frank Passic — Albion Historian

An Albion native and 1971 graduate of Albion High School, Frank Passic has been researching and writing Albion history since 1976. He is the creator of the Albion Historical Notebook, with hundreds of articles appearing weekly in the Morning Star and The Recorder. Frank maintains an extensive personal archive including Riverside Cemetery records, family surname files, genealogies, photographs, city directories, and high school yearbooks. Support his 2026 research at the Historic Albion Michigan Facebook page.

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