Lucky Cherrys Newport Family Wins $3.5 Million; Fourth Lottery Prize For Small Town
Carol Cherry thought her husband was playing a practical joke when he woke her up Tuesday morning with a $3.5 million surprise.
The Newport, Wash., couple had won the lottery.
“He woke me up out of a dead sleep,” said Cherry, 27. “I didn’t believe him.”
It was no joke. Carol and Phil Cherry were one of two winners who will split Saturday’s $7 million prize, said Washington State Lottery Regional Manager Les Denison. The other winner is a 61-year-old Kent woman.
The Cherrys’ winning ticket was part of a $2 “quick play” of computer-generated numbers the couple bought at the Safeway in Newport, and the fourth Lotto jackpot winner the town of 1,910 people north of Spokane has produced.
Rochelle Maberry and two-time winner Bill Bopp bought their tickets at Newport Car Wash and Grocery, now known as J’s Express. Bopp won $1 million in 1985 and split a $1 million jackpot with several people the following year. Maberry won $2.5 million in 1987.
“For a little town like Newport to come up with four winners, the odds would have to be greater than winning the lottery itself,” Denison said.
Newport’s luck at creating instant millionaires is topped only by the B Mart, a Vancouver, Wash., store, that has sold six winning Lotto tickets, Denison said.
Tuesday, it was the Cherrys’ turn to share in their town’s good fortune.
“We buy tickets every so often - when it gets up to about six or seven million dollars,” said Phil Cherry, 28, who works at a Spokane grocery store.
Flanked by their children - Gabrielle, 2, and Garrek, 7 - the couple watched in amazement Tuesday afternoon while Denison wrote out their big commemorative check. The Cherrys will collect $126,000 a year for the next 20 years.
“I don’t have to worry about the bills, and I can concentrate on my schooling,” said Carol Cherry, who expects to receive her bachelor’s degree in June from Eastern Washington University.
Her major? Accounting, appropriately enough.
The couple spent the morning calling friends and family, but couldn’t reach Carol’s sisters. So, they left each a message telling them to watch the evening TV news.
“Hi, Becky and Bonnie, we won the Lotto,” Carol Cherry said facing the television cameras gathered at the regional lottery office in the Spokane Valley.
The Cherrys plan to start hunting for property around Newport and build their dream house. They also hope to buy new cars and pay off Carol’s student loans.
“I keep waiting for somebody to wake me up,” Carol Cherry said.
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