“When our research led us to her story, we couldn’t believe how little-known and under-celebrated it was,” Malcolm Massey, a language expert at the company, said in a statement. Ms. Bolden’s statements at the time, he added, offered clues about her method: “Her parents and friends helped her memorize words, and she read a newspaper each day to perfect her spelling. It’s a blueprint for today’s would-be spelling bee champions.”

Ms. Bolden was an unlikely champion — she ranked last on her team, and could have been replaced as schools across the nation held spelling competitions and vied for a spot in the national championship, which drew teams of eighth-grade students from 34 cities, 510 children in all, according to Cleveland.com.

The four teams in the finals were from Cleveland, Erie, New Orleans and Pittsburgh. The New Orleans team, having learned Ms. Bolden was participating, threatened to withdraw from the competition.

Warren Hicks, the event’s organizer and Cleveland’s assistant superintendent of schools, argued that Ms. Bolden deserved to compete. “This historical event was planned to foster the better teaching of spelling in school, but it resulted in more than that,” he later said. “It demonstrated again that in our schools, every boy and every girl has a fair and even chance.”

To compete, students first took a written spelling test of 100 words. They then spelled 400 words aloud onstage at Cleveland’s Hippodrome Theater, a lavish playhouse that had opened the previous year.

Among the words Ms. Bolden spelled correctly were prejudice, persevere, misspell and embarrass. She earned a perfect score.

But her victory caused rancor among politicians and educators, some of whom refused to accept the result.