Jackpot pays bills, and more
BY JACK KRESNAK
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
November 17, 2006
LANSING -- The first thing a working woman who suddenly comes into a little money knows is that you pay the bills first and, if there's anything left over, you buy something nice for yourself.
So, the first thing 48-year-old Loretta Brown of Detroit said she would do after leaving the Michigan Lottery office in Lansing on Thursday with a multimillion-dollar check is catch up on the bills.
"The first place that I am going to go?" Brown said, repeating a reporter's question during a brief afternoon news conference. "DTE Energy. I'm going to pay my gas bill, my light bill. I'm going to pay Sprint."
Brown won Tuesday's $75-million Mega Millions jackpot. Lottery commissioner Gary Peters said Brown chose a lump-sum payment of $44.6 million; 28.9% of it will be withheld for taxes, leaving Brown with about $32 million.
Brown said she and her family had not made other plans beyond taking a trip next week. Her family includes her husband, a new-car prep manager for an auto dealer, and two adult sons -- none of whom she would name for security reasons.
"Right now, we're living in very critical, dangerous times, so the less exposure," the better, Brown said.
Rest of the article:
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...WS06/611170390
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I love seeing regular people win the lottery. She is a VERY smart woman paying her bills first and keeping her family members' names out of the paper.