This week, a full-circle ‘Jeopardy!’ moment: Meet the game’s first champ, an NC native
A North Carolina woman’s win on Wednesday night’s “Jeopardy!” was a bit of a full-circle moment for the long-running game show.
Jackie Kelly, a pension calculation developer from Cary, won her fourth game Wednesday, the same day “Jeopardy!” aired its very first episode back in 1964 — and Mary Cabell Eubanks, a North Carolina native, won that game.
Eubanks, originally from Candor, in Montgomery County, competed on the show on March 30, 1964, taking home $345.
Here’s more information about Eubanks and her time on the now-iconic quiz game show.
Life before ‘Jeopardy!’
An article on the “Jeopardy!” website says Eubanks was 26 years old when she competed on the show in 1964.
A 2020 story from the Greensboro News & Record says Eubanks graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill, then worked for a bank and as a high school English teacher. She credited some of her success on the show to her teaching experience, telling “Jeopardy!” that she knew the final answer in the game — about Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” — because she had been an English teacher.
“I loved reading and was pretty much into all things literary at that point in my life,” she told “Jeopardy!” in the article that came out this week.
Eubanks is originally from Candor, in Montgomery County, but moved to New York for three months in 1964 so her new husband could attend training for his job at Merrill Lynch, she told the News & Record.
Eubanks told “Jeopardy!” that she and a friend spent their days in the city trying out for game shows.
One day, as she was standing in line to be in the audience for “The Price is Right,” the “Jeopardy!” article says, a man approached Eubanks and asked if she’d like to be on a new show. She finished taping “The Price is Right,” then went to the “Jeopardy!” studio and auditioned.
About 10 days later, Eubanks got a call asking if she’d like to be on “Jeopardy!” She said yes.
Competing and winning on ‘Jeopardy!’
Eubanks taped the show a few weeks before it aired on March 30.
The producers told her not to wear white, so she wore a “rich, pink blouse and a skirt,” the “Jeopardy!” article says.
The “Jeopardy!” format includes three competitors for each episode. Eubanks, whose occupation was listed as “housewife,” competed against an “ex-schoolteacher” and a registered nurse.
A YouTube video of the first game shows that the categories for the first round were Television, U.S. Geography, Women, Bits and Pieces, Politics and The Funnies.
By the last round of the game, known as “Final Jeopardy,” Eubanks was in second place. For the final clue, the contestants had to, in typical “Jeopardy!” fashion, provide the question that accompanied the given answer: “’Good night, sweet prince’ was originally said to him.”
Eubanks got the question right (“Who is Hamlet?”), and with a $115 wager, she pulled into the lead after the ex-schoolteacher, who was in first place, got it wrong. Her winnings totaled $345 for the game. That’s a little more than $3,000 in 2022 dollars.
The News & Record says Eubanks competed on the show a second day, but lost that game.
Eubanks told “Jeopardy!” that she used her winnings to see shows on Broadway while she lived in the city.
“I went to every show that was in town,” she said in the “Jeopardy!” article this week. “I loved drama and shows and plays and everything. So I spent my money going to those. They were a lot cheaper at that point in time, obviously.”
Life after ‘Jeopardy!’
The “Jeopardy” article from this week says Eubanks is now 84. She lives in Greensboro and is a mother of two and grandmother of four.
“Jeopardy!” says Eubanks retired from the American Red Cross and still works part-time at a furniture store.
“When she’s not working, she spends her days relaxing and enjoys retelling the story of her time on ‘Jeopardy!’ and how it impacted her life,” the article reads.
Eubanks told the News & Record in 2020 that she doesn’t watch “Jeopardy!” today.
“It was very special to me and it’s preserved in memory,” she told the paper. “I don’t want to relive it.”
More information on Mary Cabell Eubanks
You can read the full interview Eubanks did with “Jeopardy!” at jeopardy.com. The article includes an audio clip of Eubanks’ episode of the show.
This story was originally published March 31, 2022 at 2:59 PM with the headline "This week, a full-circle ‘Jeopardy!’ moment: Meet the game’s first champ, an NC native."
