Small Town Folks Share Huge Jackpot

Thanksgiving was great - and Christmas will be even better - for the 43 people in this tiny town who won a $50 million lottery jackpot.

Peggy Dickson, a bookkeeper at the Terry Cotton Gin and organizer of the pool, was first to find out about the win Wednesday night. She called everyone who had pitched in $10 each fortickets.

She bought the tickets for the $50 million Lotto Texas jackpot, the biggest of the year so far, at the Longhorn Liquor Store in Sweetwater.

Store owner Jim Carson said when Dickson walked in to buy 430 tickets, he asked if he could chip in $10 of his own. He also threw in an extra 10 tickets for free, for a total of 550.

Carson will get not only his share, but also a 1 percent bonus - about $500,000 - because his store sold the winning ticket.

The 43 winners would get $1.16 million each, or about $58,000 for 20 years.