During her time in New York for the ad taping, she appeared on the David Letterman Show, where Letterman made a joke of what she thought was going to be a serious display of typing speed. He participated in a television commercial for Apple Computer, which featured a Qwerty-Dvorak interchangeable keyboard for its Apple IIc model. The category was later withdrawn.īarbara Blackburn subsequently went to work at State Farm Insurance in Salem, where she was employed in the word processing department until she retired in 2002. As of 2005, writer Barbara Blackburn was the fastest English language typist in the world, according to The Guinness Book of World Records.

It was there that she was timed for the Guinness Book of World Records, where she remained for a decade as the world's fastest typist. The fastest typing speed ever, 216 words per minute, was achieved by Stella Pajunas-Garnand from Chicago in 1946 in one minute on an IBM electric using the QWERTY key layout. He participated in speed demonstrations at the Canadian National Exposition and the Canadian Educational Conference. She later worked as an office manager for an electronics company and later as a sales manager. went to her Business School looking for someone to demonstrate the Dvorak keyboard, she decided to give it a try.Īfter graduating from Business School she worked as a legal secretary in Kansas City always using a Dvorak keyboard. When a representative from the Royal Typewriter Co.

In a few years its speed was 138 wpm ( words per minute ). The Key Tronic first annual World Invitational Type-Off finals will be held in Las Vegas in. In 1938 when he was studying at a Business School he put his hands on a Dvorak keyboard for the first time. The search is on to find the fastest typist in the world. This lowered her average grade and she graduated third in a class of 46 students. However, in the typing subject he failed with the lowest grade ( I-minus ). At Pleasant Hill, Missouri, she was one of the best students.

Barbara Blackburn was born in Salem, Oregon, United States.

Fastest typist in the world