THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 19, 1995 TAG: 9504190411
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
Sandra Brown was at work peeling potatoes Tuesday morning when she read in the newspaper that the winning Lotto ticket had been sold at the store where her husband had bought his.
She could remember only one of his numbers, so she called him at home and woke him up, insisting that he read the ticket to her.
Sleepily, Alphonso ``Pete'' Brown Jr. read: ``07, 09, 16, 27, 29, 38.''
The numbers were worth $2.1 million.
Someone else would have to finish the potato salad for that night's catered dinner, thought Sandra Brown, who has cooked at Oliver's Grocery on Holland Road for at least 15 years.
``I've got to go,'' she told one of the other two cooks.
She wanted to see the ticket herself. Her husband, a mechanic, had worked the third shift at Virginia Design Packaging Corp. in Suffolk's industrial park. When she got home, he was finally awake.
They drove to Richmond, arriving unannounced at the state lottery office Tuesday afternoon, and picked up a check for $108,903 - before taxes. That's $74,054 after Uncle Sam takes his share.
There will be 19 more installments of $107,000 before taxes.
``I'm in shock,'' Pete Brown said Tuesday night after they returned to Suffolk.
They stopped at Willie's Grocery, where he had bought the ticket, with their sons, Derrick, 17, and Gerald, 11, and four excited nephews.
They haven't decided how to spend all the money, the Browns said, but they plan to move from their duplex on Spruce Street.
``We'll definitely buy a new home,'' said Pete Brown, a regular lottery player who had never won more than $100. ``That's first.''
He had taken Derrick, a Lakeland High School junior, to the now-famous grocery store on East Washington Street on Saturday morning to catch a ride to Portsmouth to play basketball. While waiting for the van, he went inside and bought a ticket from Emma Willie, who runs the store with her husband, William ``June'' Willie Jr.
The store will receive $5,000 for selling the winning ticket.
The Browns, both Suffolk natives, plan to stay in the area.
``This is my home,'' said Pete Brown, 40. ``I'll stay right here.''
But they haven't decided whether they will continue working.
``I'll go back,'' said Sandra Brown, 39. ``But not this week.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by Michael Kestner
Suffolk's Alphonso "Pete" Brown Jr. and wife Sandra are "in shock"
after their piece of Lotto luck.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA LOTTERY WINNER by CNB