ST. LOUIS — The third time was not the charm on Jeopardy! for St. Louis teacher Sandy Olive, and she might be kicking herself after Final Jeopardy!
Olive, a sophomore English teacher at Lindbergh High School, was ahead by more than $5,000 heading into Final Jeopardy!, which was in the category "American Authors."
The final clue read: "'Camelot', 'The Pilgrims' and 'A Postscript by Clarence' are chapters in a classic novel by this author"
Olive wagered enough to come away with the victory but got the question wrong. Her response was "Who is Nathaniel Hawthorne?" but she should have thought a little closer to home with Mark Twain.
The loss brought to an end the two-day winning streak for Olive in which she won $52,200.
Thursday's Final Jeopardy! was not the only time she had a hometown advantage on a question. On Tuesday, a St. Louis Cardinals question helped her win in her Jeopardy! debut.
"Statues of Dizzy Dean and Ozzie Smith are outside the stadium of this Major League Baseball team," the Tuesday answer read.
She buzzed in with the correct answer and eventually finished up with $21,000.
She claimed another $31,200 in her second game, but was left with the $2,000 runner-up prize in her third game.
In an interview with 5 On Your Side, Olive said there were a few things that stuck out to her during her stint on the show.
"The holding area was actually the "Wheel of Fortune" set and we just sat there, like in the audience of "Wheel of Fortune" while they were doing work on the set," she said.
"And the Wheel was covered in a big plastic sheet with a sign that said do not touch the wheel. And I wanted to touch the wheel so bad and I thought, if you touch that wheel and they send you home from "Jeopardy," I was like, it's not worth it, it's not worth the risk to touch the wheel."
You can watch Jeopardy! every weekday at 4:30 on 5 On Your Side.