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LOTTO TEXAS NOVICE FROM ARKANSAS WINS $23 MILLION

18/05/2005

Alice Clay, 55, of Carlisle, Arkansas, began playing Lotto Texas just six months ago.

She started out saving herself time, too, buying tickets for 10 consecutive drawings every time she visited the Total Store, located at 5023 State Line in Texarkana.

Alice always played the same numbers, too. All were selections based on the birth months of her three children, her husband and herself.

“What got into me to buy a Quick Pick, I can't tell you,” she said. “But, the day I walked into the store, I thought I'd buy one Quick Pick just because I'd never bought one before.”

Never thinking it would be a winner, Alice went back to Carlisle and barely remembered to check her numbers the next morning.

“I was at my son's carpet store helping him out that morning when I saw the Texas Lottery numbers in the paper,” she said. “To my great surprise, I read my son's Pick 3 choices in the little box and realized he had won $500. So I beeped my son, Dale, to give him the news. While I was waiting for him to call, I looked through my tickets and realized I had the six Lotto numbers that were in the paper.”

When Dale called back and heard his mother's news, he was too caught up with his work to think about believing her.

“What he said was, ‘Momma, don't call me with this kind of stuff, I'm busy,'” she said. “So I called my other son, Donald, whose Pick 3 numbers had come in. He told me, ‘Momma, you didn't win.' So I called my son-in-law, Bill, and he called the Lottery to find out about the winning numbers and what to do next.”

After that, Clay sat in her chair at the store, disbelieving of her luck. She went home after her sons arrived and decided to believe her after they saw Donald's winning Pick 3 numbers and her own in the paper.

“My husband, Willie, was planting flowers, so I thought I'd help him and get this off my mind a little bit,” she said. “When I told him I'd won, he said, ‘Aw, baby, you didn't win. C'mon.'”

She signed the ticket and gave it to her son, Dale, for safekeeping. (He put it in his coat pocket every day). That evening, the family went to Red Lobster to celebrate.

It wasn't long before everyone in Carlisle, pop. 4,000, found out about Alice winning the Lotto jackpot.

As with all winners, folks always want to know what the claimant plans to do with the money.

“I tell everybody the same thing, this money isn't going to change me,” Clay said. “It will, however, help me pay my bills more quickly. In fact, I tell people I already have a nice home, so I don't need that. And I already have a nice Honda, so I don't need a new car.”

People are quick to render their opinions, too, especially when it concerns a large amount of money.

“I've had people tell me that they would not have chosen the Cash Value Option because they would then lose the other half of the money,” she said. “My answer to them is ‘how could I lose something I didn't have?'”

Clay also has had many phone calls from people congratulating her.

For the time being, Clay says she has no immediate plans for her winnings. Maybe in a few months, after the dust settles, she and her husband will take a cruise by themselves, possibly to Jamaica or Hawaii.

She and her husband, Willie, have been married six years. Clay was employed by from the Chicopee Factory, a division of Johnson and Johnson, where HandiWipes are manufactured. Her husband is retired from the Armstrong Tire and Rubber plant.

The couple has three children, Dale Bryant, Donald and Sharon. They also have six grandchildren.

“My only other plans are to keep playing the Lotto,” Clay said. “Last week, I got four of six numbers. I got the feeling I might win again.”

Today, the Lottery presented the Bryant and Clay Limited Partnership, Alice Clay, President, A. Clay, L.L.C., general partner, a check in the amount of $11,914,410.00. It is approximately half of the $23 million jackpot for the drawing on April 12. The winner chose the Cash Value Option.

The retailer, the Total Store, is eligible to receive a one-percent bonus of $230,000 for selling a jackpot-winning ticket. The winning numbers were 40-44-18-38-34-28.