Powerball lottery winner shares $42.5M with relatives
Posted: 8/11/2008 2:05:13 AM
Jean Edwards went from anonymous retiree to millionaire celebrity this week.
But as far as she's concerned, not much in her life has changed.
Edwards plans to stay in her Willow Street home and maybe take a vacation to Jackson Hole, Wyo., but that's about it.
"I just don't know why it would make any change in our lives," she said at a news conference Friday about her instant good fortune as a Powerball lottery winner.
"We'll be able to get some things we need, but why should you have to change?"
Some folks would say she had 42 million reasons.
That's $42,529,765, to be exact — the amount of cash Jean's husband, Barrie, won in the Aug. 2 Powerball drawing.
Lottery officials held Friday's news conference to announce that the Edwardses had won the drawing.
The ticket could have paid out $86.3 million in annual annuities. Barrie instead decided to take the cash payment up front and share his good fortune with his wife, his brother and sister-in-law, and 10 nieces and nephews and their spouses.
Barrie, his brother, Terry, and their wives will split a little over $34 million. The remaining $8.4 million will be divided among other family members, with each family receiving $1.4 million.
The federal government will take a 25 percent cut — a total of $10.6 million — in taxes from the jackpot, which is the 10th largest in Pennsylvania lottery history.
"We're still in shock," Jean said at Friday's news conference, held at the Pennsylvania Lottery headquarters in Middletown.
Accompanying Jean at the event were three other winners: sister-in-law Linda Edwards, also of Willow Street, and two nieces, Yvonne Edwards of Washington Boro and Melanie Funk of Lancaster.
Their publicity-shy husbands stayed home, said Jean, who described how Barrie came to possess the winning ticket.
A week ago Friday — Aug. 1 — he was headed to the Turkey Hill Minit Market, 2921 Willow Street Pike, where he and Terry play the lottery regularly twice a week. Before he went into the store, Jean handed him a coupon she'd received in the mail for a free Powerball ticket. Barrie also bought his own Powerball ticket and two Match 6 tickets.
On Saturday, Barrie watched the returns on TV and saw the numbers on his freebie ticket, picked at random by a computer, match the numbers on the five white balls - 2-5-28-33-54 — and the red Powerball — 30.
"I had already gone to bed," Jean recalled. "(Barrie) came back to the bedroom, threw the light on and said, 'We just won the Powerball.'
"I said, 'Yeah, right, turn off the light.' "
After double-checking the results on the Internet, the Edwardses called Terry and Linda at midnight.
"I had the same reaction (as Jean)," Linda recalled. "I said, 'Why are you calling me at 12 o'clock to play a joke?' "
Once they, too, were convinced the ticket was a winner, Jean called the family's accountant on Sunday and their attorney on Monday.
Then it was time to notify the other family members.
Decades ago, Barrie and Terry had vowed to share their winnings with their extended family if they hit it big in the lottery - but their nieces and nephews knew nothing of the pact.
The two couples kept the news secret until Wednesday night, when they made the rounds in person and by telephone, telling incredulous relatives they, too, had just become millionaires.
"They went around to all of our houses, and it was like the Prize Patrol," Yvonne Edwards said. "I think I still don't believe it."
Linda said there was never a doubt that Barrie would share his windfall.
"He's a very honest person. My husband is, too," she said. "We knew the verbal agreement would be upheld, no matter who bought the ticket."
Learning that her uncle was giving her $1.4 million was "shocking and overwhelming," Funk said.
Despite her millionaire status, she plans to keep her job at a Lancaster trust company, as does Yvonne, who works for High Industries.
Yvonne said she and her husband, Ronald, plan to pay off their mortgage and give their daughter, who recently got engaged, a first-class wedding.
Linda will take an early retirement from her job at the Jay Group, she said.
Jean and Barrie have been retired for nine years, and Terry, a self-employed plumber, also is retired.
Other family members reached by telephone declined to comment on their plans.
The other winners, who will receive $1.4 million, are Robert and Elaine Funk and Jeffrey and Donna Funk, all of Mountville; Gerald and Lynn Hess of Davidson, S.C.; and K. Scott Edwards of Lusby, Md.
Jean said she's happy her nieces and nephews will have fewer worries about bills.
As for her, she's looking forward to that Wyoming vacation and a possible trip to Disney World with members of her extended family.
But otherwise, she'll continue to follow her normal routine, which includes lots of traveling and volunteering at Manor Animal Hospital.
"The animal hospital called me and said, 'You don't have to come in anymore — you're a millionaire now!' "
"I said, 'I'm not changing. I'm coming in.' "
Source: Lancaster Online
