| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
Carson widow wins $91 million SuperLotto Plus jackpot
Monday August 11, 2003CARSON, Calif. (AP) The sole winner of Saturday's $91 million SuperLotto Plus jackpot was a widow who had lived in a motel for the past three years because she could no longer afford her town home.
Patricia Frierson bought the winning ticket Saturday afternoon at Village Liquors, a store down the block from the EconoLodge where she'd been living.
The factory worker returned to the store Sunday morning clutching her winning ticket and hugging customers and employees.
``I'm going to faint,'' she exclaimed when a computer verified her numbers. ``I can't believe my numbers came up. I've been playing these numbers for years,'' she told KCAL-TV.
Frierson she said the numbers were dates important to her family, including the birthday of her daughter.
``Should I go to work today?'' she asked laughing store employees.
Frierson did show up for her Sunday afternoon shift at a factory in Carson but quickly left in a limousine, KABC-TV reported. She said she planned to take a week's vacation.
Village Liquors manager John Kim said Frierson was a regular customer who bought a lottery ticket every week.
The store will get a 0.5 percent share of the jackpot. It's not the first time the store has sold a winning lottery ticket. A winner bought a ticket worth $4 million there in 1996.
Kim said the store's phone has been ringing off the hook with calls from well-wishers and the media.
The desk clerk at the Carson EconoLodge where Frierson was staying said the SuperLotto winner called Sunday to say she'd be moving out in a few days.
Frierson said she's now going to look for a place by the ocean.
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