John and Lisa Robinson of Munford appeared on NBC’s “Today” show with one of three winning Powerball tickets for the record $1.6 billion jackpot drawn Wednesday night.
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Robinson said earlier Friday that they would help certain friends, give to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, and donate to their church.
The couple bought four tickets at Naifeh’s Food Mart, a grocery store one block from their home at 6:56 p.m. on Wednesday night. Tennessee lottery officials confirmed on Thursday that Naifeh’s had sold a winning ticket.
Munford Mayor Dwayne Cole said he knows the Robinsons and does not think they will squander their money.
“When we verified it that morning at 4:30, I tried to get [my daughter] over to the house”, John Robinson said.
Lisa, who works in a dermatologist’s office, said a few things went through her mind as to what winning the lottery meant to her family. “It’s embarrassing. This is too much for us”, she told them”.
Amidst nationwide Powerball hysteria over the biggest jackpot in history, a Tennessee family has come forward with a ticket that is potentially one of the three winners from Wednesday’s colossal $1.6 billion Powerball drawing.
Balbir Atwal, the owner of a 7-Eleven store that sold a winning Powerball lottery ticket, holds up a Millionaire Made Here, sign at his store in Chino Hills, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016.
Both states require lottery winners to make their first and last name public, though it’s possible to circumvent this law by claiming the prize in a trust.
Each of the winning tickets is worth US$528.8 million to the holders, lottery officials said in California, one of 44 states plus Washington, DC, and two USA territories that sold millions of Powerball tickets. John said they plan to contact lottery officials after the show. “They’ve got a year to come forward and claim and again we don’t know if it’s a man woman or group it could be anything at this point”. The California victor has until 5 pm PT Friday to claim the prize before the long weekend. They planned to do that immediately after their appearance in the “Today” show’s NY studio.
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He called the prank “despicable” in an interview with ABC News and said he would pay for the nurse to take a family vacation anywhere she would like. It was the largest lottery prize offered in North America and no other lottery in the world had ever featured a jackpot of that size that could be won on a single ticket.
