By Rita Howell

Jaterrica Amos, representing Panola County, placed second at the Mid-South Spelling Bee Saturday in Memphis, losing in the last round to Patrick Dockery of DeSoto County.

Jaterrica, 13, is a seventh grader at Batesville Junior High and had won the county spelling bee–for the second year in a row–in January. She is the daughter of Jackie and Terry Amos of Batesville.

 “She finished second place after a grueling 36 rounds,” reported John Mathis of Batesville, a Mid-South Spelling Bee spectator who has been following the competition since his daughters won the regional bee and advanced to the national contest five years in a row. Meg Mathis won the Mid-South Bee in 2004 and 2005, and her sister Cherry was the champ in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

The Commercial Appeal, sponsor of the event, reported that Jatericca correctly spelled “luculent,” “exuviate,” “fungible,” and “philhellenism” in previous rounds before being stumped by “filiality.”

“She (Jaterrica) is a fighter and wouldn’t give up,” Mathis said, noting that Jatericca has one more year of eligibility.

“She is a great person and a great student,” BJH principal Leslie Busby said on Monday. “She epitomizes everything we desire, want and expect out of our Batesville Junior High students.”

Forty-nine students, winners of bees in their respective counties, participated in Saturday’s event. Dockery will represent the Mid-South at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. in June.