A retired middle school history teacher from Murfreesboro, Tennessee...

Judy Shewmake

Hi Murfreesboro, I'm Judy Shewmake, a retired middle school history teacher. Watch me make some history on Jeopardy!

[2010-11-26 Winner's Circle interview]
How does it feel to be the new Jeopardy! champion?
Okay, winning Jeopardy! is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. It was something that was on my bucket list. I just wanted to get on. I never even dreamed I could win. Winning is just the best.

Does your job give you an advantage when playing Jeopardy!?
The way that I taught history--and I had a number of students comment on how much they liked it--was I told stories. Uh, history is the greatest story in the world. It's better than any soap opera. All the love stories--it's wonderful. So I told stories.

Are there any teachers or professors you would like to thank?
I would like to say thank-you to my high school history teacher, Mr. Davenport, and I'd like to say thank-you to my high school English teacher, Ms. Crispman, who got me out of the dialect that I spoke in Middle Tennessee and now I--I now have fairly decent English, so... [laughs]

Season 27 1-time champion: $20,801 + $2,000.

Last name pronounced like "SHOO-make".