Stella Petty Champion (1920–2011)

Stella Petty Champion was a nationally recognized trapshooter.

Stella Maxine Gossom was born on August 20, 1920, in DeWitt (Arkansas County). She was the third of four children—two boys and two girls—of Elijah Lewis Gossom and Lulu May Griffith Gossom.

Stella Gossom grew up in DeWitt and married Lawrence A. Powell in February 1936. The couple had one son. After Powell’s death in 1944, she married Julius Petty in September 1946.

Julius Petty, who was an internationally known trap shooting champion from the 1920s until 1955, recognized Stella’s shooting ability and entered her in some trapshooting competitions. She proved to be a star. In 1948, in the Grand American Handicap, she made the highest score ever achieved by a woman.

In 1949, Stella Petty was the Preliminary Handicap Women’s Champion, while she and Julius were the husband-and-wife runners-up. In December 1949, she was featured in an article in Life magazine titled, “Life Goes Hunting in Stuttgart, Arkansas.” In 1951, she finished first in a combined field of 243 other men and women to win the handicap preliminary event of the Grand American Trapshoot. In 1952, the Pettys were the husband-and-wife champions, and Stella was Class D Singles Champion and the Women’s Champion of Champions. Stella Petty was named to the ATA All-American Team in 1951, 1953, and 1954, and she won the Arkansas Women’s State Title in 1952, 1953 and 1954. Following the death of her husband and stepson in a car accident on December 21, 1956, she chose to end her competitive career. She continued duck hunting until around 1970. Her previous trapshooting accomplishments were recognized in 1988 when she was inducted into the Arkansas State Trapshooting Federation Hall of Fame.

A woman of broad interests, she owned and operated a beauty shop but was passionate about Broadway shows. She would frequently go to New York City to indulge her passion for the theater, leaving the shop unstaffed. She also loved to travel and would regularly go with her third husband, Dr. W. T. Champion, to “meet the first snow.” She learned to paint in her later years, showing a particular penchant for painting animals. She also competed in ballroom dancing competitions into the 1990s.

Stella Champion died on October 3, 2011, in Little Rock (Pulaski County). She is buried in the Lone Tree Cemetery in Stuttgart (Arkansas County).

For additional information:
Obituary of Stella Champion. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, October 6, 2011. https://www.arkansasonline.com/obituaries/2011/oct/06/stella-champion-2011-10-06/ (accessed April 29, 2025).

“Stella Maxine Gossom Powell Petty Champion.” Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/78479399/stella_maxine_powell_petty_champion (accessed April 29, 2025).

William H. Pruden III
Ravenscroft School