Florida widow, 84, claims US$590m Powerball jackpot
Source: Agencies |
June 7, 2013, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AN 84-year-old Florida widow, who bought her Powerball ticket after another customer let her get ahead in line, has finally come forward to claim the biggest undivided lottery jackpot in history - US$590 million.
Gloria C. MacKenzie, a retiree from Maine and a mother of four who lives in a modest, tin-roof house in Zephyrhills, where the lone winning ticket in the May 18 drawing was sold, took her prize on Wednesday in a lump sum of just over US$370 million, rather than collect the full payment in 30 annual payments. After federal taxes, she is getting about US$278 million, lottery officials said.
She did not speak to a crowd of reporters outside lottery headquarters, leaving quickly in a silver Ford Focus with her son and family friends. She was accompanied at the lottery offices by two unidentified attorneys.
MacKenzie bought the winning ticket at a Publix supermarket in the town of about 13,300, which is 48 kilometers northeast of Tampa. It is best known for the bottled spring water that bears its name. The US$590 million was the second-largest lottery jackpot in history, behind a US$656 million Mega Millions prize in March 2012, but that sum was split with three winning tickets.
MacKenzie said she purchased the ticket after another buyer "was kind enough to let me go ahead in line." MacKenzie let the lottery computers generate the numbers at random. She said she also bought four other tickets for the drawing.
"We are grateful with this blessing of winning the Florida Lottery Powerball jackpot," MacKenzie said in a statement. "We hope that everyone would give us the opportunity to maintain our privacy for our family's benefit."
The winner had 60 days to claim the prize. Lottery spokesman David Bishop said MacKenzie, her lawyers and her financial adviser spent about two hours going through the necessary paperwork.
"They had clearly been preparing for this. They took all this time to get everything in order," Bishop said.
MacKenzie retired to Zephyrhills more than a decade ago from rural Maine with her husband, Ralph, who died in 2005.
Gloria C. MacKenzie, a retiree from Maine and a mother of four who lives in a modest, tin-roof house in Zephyrhills, where the lone winning ticket in the May 18 drawing was sold, took her prize on Wednesday in a lump sum of just over US$370 million, rather than collect the full payment in 30 annual payments. After federal taxes, she is getting about US$278 million, lottery officials said.
She did not speak to a crowd of reporters outside lottery headquarters, leaving quickly in a silver Ford Focus with her son and family friends. She was accompanied at the lottery offices by two unidentified attorneys.
MacKenzie bought the winning ticket at a Publix supermarket in the town of about 13,300, which is 48 kilometers northeast of Tampa. It is best known for the bottled spring water that bears its name. The US$590 million was the second-largest lottery jackpot in history, behind a US$656 million Mega Millions prize in March 2012, but that sum was split with three winning tickets.
MacKenzie said she purchased the ticket after another buyer "was kind enough to let me go ahead in line." MacKenzie let the lottery computers generate the numbers at random. She said she also bought four other tickets for the drawing.
"We are grateful with this blessing of winning the Florida Lottery Powerball jackpot," MacKenzie said in a statement. "We hope that everyone would give us the opportunity to maintain our privacy for our family's benefit."
The winner had 60 days to claim the prize. Lottery spokesman David Bishop said MacKenzie, her lawyers and her financial adviser spent about two hours going through the necessary paperwork.
"They had clearly been preparing for this. They took all this time to get everything in order," Bishop said.
MacKenzie retired to Zephyrhills more than a decade ago from rural Maine with her husband, Ralph, who died in 2005.
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