(Adds quotes, details)
By Kevin Murphy
DEARBORN, Mo., Nov 30 (Reuters) – A Missouri couple who won
half of a record $587.5 million Powerball jackpot said on Friday
they plan to stay put in their rural community, but know their
lives will be changed.
“I think we’ll have a good Christmas,” Cindy Hill said at a
news conference where she and her husband, Mark Hill, were
presented as winners of the jackpot by the Missouri Lottery.
Cindy Hill, 51, is a former office manager who got laid off
in 2010. Mark Hill, 52, was a mechanic for Hillshire Brands, a
food company, but has now quit his job.
They have three grown sons and a 6-year-old daughter adopted
from China who were among about 25 relatives at the news
conference, held in the gymnasium of the high school where they
were sweethearts in the 1970s.
Cindy Hill first learned of the winning ticket on Thursday
when she checked her numbers at the Trex Mart in Dearborn, a
community of about 500 people 30 miles (50 km) north of Kansas
City. She then called Mark Hill from her car. They had bought
five tickets.
“I think I’m going to have a heart attack,” she told him. He
told her to meet him at his mother’s house so he could check the
numbers for himself. “He said this is the ‘Show Me State,’ show
me.”
When they verified the numbers, they traveled to lottery
offices in Jefferson City, Missouri, spent the night in a hotel
and tried to comprehend what happened, Cindy Hill said.
“I thought ‘This isn’t what I thought it would be like, now
I’m really nervous,” she said. “I’m grateful, but there will be
some not-so-good stuff to go along with it.” Earlier, she said
“You are going to get people coming out of the woodwork and some
of them many not be too sane.”
She said she and her husband plan to make the most of the
winnings by giving to charity, to relatives for college
education and other needs, and to the community.
“We are pretty well-grounded and worked hard all our lives,”
Cindy Hill said.
Mark Hill deferred to his wife for most of the news
conference, which was observed by about 300 students from grades
7 to 12 in the bleachers.
“It’s all just kind of a fuzz,” Mark Hill said.
He said he has not grasped winning the money. On Thursday,
for example, he went to buy toothpaste and other items to take
to the hotel and found himself checking the price.
A CAMARO AND A HORSE
Cindy Hill said her husband wants a red Chevrolet Camaro car
and she wants a horse. Daughter Jaiden wants a pony, Cindy Hill
said. They also plan to travel, including a holiday with a lot
of relatives in tow, she said.
The Hills won $293,750,000 before taxes. But they will take
it in a lump sum of about $193 million rather than the larger
amount over 30 years.
The Hills shared the Powerball payout with someone who
bought a ticket at a food store in Fountain Hills, Arizona, on
the outskirts of Phoenix. The Arizona winner has not yet come
forward.
Some states allow lottery winners to remain anonymous but
Missouri requires that the winner be publicly identified to
claim the prize.
Dearborn reveled in its sudden arrival in the spotlight.
“It was a total surprise,” Don Palmer, a customer at the
Trex Mart convenience store, said on Thursday. “Nothing ever
happens in Dearborn.”
The winning numbers were 5, 16, 22, 23, 29, and the
Powerball number 6.
The odds of winning the jackpot with a $2 ticket is one in
more than 175 million.
(Reporting by Kevin Murphy; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and
Mohammad Zargham)
