THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 23, 1995 TAG: 9504220082
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Long : 173 lines
``I ain't going to change. You make money. Money is not supposed to make you.''
``Pete'' Brown
LAST WEEKEND, Alphonso Brown Jr. spent the last dollar in his pocket on a Pick 6 ticket, ignoring the familiar sign giving the odds of winning the lottery jackpot.
Brown, known to some as ``Pete,'' plays Lotto every Wednesday and Saturday, sometimes winning as much as $100, most times not. But he never really thought he might be the lucky one out of 7.1 million to hit the big money.
Usually he chooses the numbers by using family members' birthdays. But on April 15, he was in a hurry and watching for a van that would pick up his teenage son at Willie's Grocery on East Washington Street.
He had given his son, who was going to Portsmouth to play basketball, some spending money, then bought oil and a loaf of bread. That left $1 for Lotto.
``Let the computer pick it,'' he told Emma Willie, who runs the small community market with her husband.
When Brown got home, he threw the ticket on a dresser and forgot about it - until Tuesday morning.
That's when he discovered he had beat the odds. His ticket was worth $2.1 million.
I'm in shock,'' Brown said Tuesday night, after he and his wife, Sandra, returned from Richmond with their first installment on the payoff.
The bonanza, after taxes, is a little more than $70,000 a year for 20 years.
Brown, 40, a mechanic at Virginia Design Packaging Corp., sees the windfall as a way to provide a better life for his wife and their two sons, Derrick, 17, and Gerald, 11.
He dreams of owning a home, taking a family vacation somewhere like Disney World, buying himself a motorcycle like he used to have and a second car for the family, and of sending their sons to college, if they want to go.
But first, he and his wife started making plans. They have been meeting with accountants and a broker for advice on handling the money wisely.
Gerald, their younger son - or ``Duke'' as his mother calls him - thinks the family is rich. Last week, he was spending some of his share on ``tips,'' Sandra Brown said.
A fourth-grader at Booker T. Washington Elementary School, he was buying candy and telling the clerk to ``keep the change,'' she said.
``I ain't going to change,'' vowed Pete Brown, who knows the bounty is not endless.
``You make money,'' he said, taking a break from washing his Ford Taurus. ``Money is not supposed to make you.''
Friends waved as they passed the Spruce Street duplex the family has rented for about 15 years. A shade tree shelters the front porch of the home, in the shadow of huge peanut processing plants.
Sandra Brown grew up there, in the Tynes Park neighborhood. He was raised on Manning Road, in what then was Nansemond County, but they met as teenagers when he'd hang around his uncle's store on a corner near her house.
``We fell in love at first sight,'' Pete Brown said.
They were married in 1976 after he got out of the service, and both of them have worked to make the marriage last.
``I give out before I give up,'' Pete Brown said.
They have tried to teach their sons good values, he said.
Derrick, a junior at Lakeland High School who takes classes at P.D. Pruden Vo-Tech Center, is good at fixing radios and other electronic equipment, his mother said. He's undecided about his future after high school, she said.
``I hope he goes to college because I got the money for it now,'' she said.
Sandra Brown, a cook at Oliver's Grocery on Holland Road for about 15 years, discovered the family's turn of luck Tuesday morning. Well-known for her cooking abilities, she was making potato salad for a dinner her boss, Ricky Conner, was catering that night.
The breakfast crowd at the tiny lunch counter was thinning, and one of her co-workers, Ann White, was taking a break about 9:30 a.m. She sat at one of the tables, watching TV and reading the newspaper.
``I said, `Sandra, guess what? Somebody hit the lottery, but they don't know who it was.''
Brown, peeling potatoes behind the counter, asked what she meant. When White read that the winning ticket had been bought at Willie's, she said her husband had bought his there.
``She was so nonchalant,'' White said. ``I asked her if he still had it and she said, `Yeah.' I told her to call him, and when she hung up the phone, she said, `My husband got all the numbers.' Then she went back over there and started peeling potatoes again.''
Finally, Brown put the potatoes down and drove home - about 15 minutes away - to see for herself. Before she got there, Pete Brown went to his sister's house and read the newspaper himself, then drove to Willie's Grocery and verified the numbers again.
That afternoon, the couple drove to Richmond to the state lottery office to claim the prize.
By that time, however, rumors were rampant around town. People knew the ticket had been bought in Suffolk and the prize was unclaimed.
``There were more stories,'' said Emma Willie, who sold the ticket. ``Some thought the ticket had been lost. People were supposedly walking up and down Washington Street looking in trash cans.''
Emma Willie and her husband, William ``June'' Willie Jr., will get $5,000 for selling the winning ticket.
A crowd began to gather at the store Tuesday just before 7 p.m., when the new celebrities were due to arrive.
For the next few days, Pete and Sandra Brown both took some time off from work to make financial arrangements.
One of their first priorities, she said, was a house, the first they would own.
``If I had my house today, I'd pack my stuff and get out of here,'' Sandra Brown said.
They just hope the money won't go to their heads.
``I still feel the same myself,'' Sandra Brown said. ``I don't feel too much different.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
[Color Photo]
"Pete" and Sandra Brown are in the money, thanks to a $1 investment
Staff and cover photos by MICHAEL KESTNER
William ``June'' Willie Jr., at left, waits for the winners of the
lottery Tuesday night as a truckload of kids pulls up, screaming
with excitement for Willie's good luck, too.
Alphonso ``Pete'' Brown and his wife, Sandra, beam with delight as
they talk to television and newspaper reporters about their good
fortune at Willie's Grocery on East Washington Street in Suffolk.
It's a fantasy shared by a lot of people - to win the lottery or
to inherit a lot of money, especially from a distant relative.
After the Browns' good fortune became public, we asked some
people what they'd do if such good fortune came their way. Their
responses are below.
How about you? Tell us how you'd spend your millions. Call
Infoline at 640-5555 and press CASH (2274). Let your imagination
soar.
You can also match your lottery numbers against the selected
numbers to see if you're Virginia's newest millionaire. When you've
finished recording your comments, just press 7777.
We'll share the responses next week. Good luck!
``I have no idea. I've never bought a lottery ticket. My son
loves to farm. I think if I won, I'd buy him a farm. And also help
my daughter. I would build both my children a nice home, and then I
would travel.''
Bonnie Williams
Chuckatuck homemaker
``I'd open up a homeless shelter in Norfolk or Portsmouth, like
the one here in Suffolk, and help out the homeless.''
Brian Valentine
Beer deliveryman
``I'd have fresh flowers . . . every day. I'd have them all over
my house. My two boys, Doug and Gary, love to hunt and fish. I'd
probably buy them a place so they could do that. And I think I would
like to help others less fortunate. Seeing people happy is
something I would like to do.''
Carol Harvey
Secretary, Lake Kilby Water
Treatment Plant
``I have seven siblings, and I would share it with my siblings.
I'm not greedy. I'm very generous.''
Joyce Eley
Machine operator,
Penn Engineering
``I think I'd quit work, I reckon. I'd relax and go fishing.''
Gerald Jordan
Mechanic,
Suffolk Equipment Co.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE LOTTO by CNB