‘I was numb.’ Eastern Kentucky family wins 2 big lottery prizes within 6 months
Within a six-month period, an Eastern Kentucky family took home two big Kentucky Lottery prizes, winning one after the other.
William Fannin of Perry County purchased a Powerball ticket at the Zip Zone in Hazard in time for the game’s May 13 drawing. Ultimately, he matched four white ball numbers and the red Powerball, winning the game’s third-place prize worth $50,000, according to a Wednesday Kentucky Lottery news release.
“It came up $50,000,” he said. “I was numb.”
The win is especially surprising given that three months earlier, his daughter cashed in a scratch-off ticket worth more than $150,000.
It was Fannin’s daughter, Starla, who first tipped him off about his possible win. She’d heard a winning lottery ticket was sold at the Zip Zone in Hazard. The next day, he took his ticket to the store to have it scanned.
It came up a winner.
Struck by the discovery, Fannin drove home to tell his wife Frieda, urging her to sit down first.
“I told her, ‘Sit down.’ ‘Are you okay, what’s wrong,’ she asked. ‘That winning ticket was ours, it belonged to us,’” Fannin said.
“Then we cried, both of us,” Frieda Fannin told lottery officials.
After taxes, the couple took home a check for $36,000 May 17.
Fannin’s daughter also took the news well.
“She was probably more tickled than me,” William said about Starla’s reaction to his Powerball win. “She was so excited!”
Before he retired, Fannin taught for 33 years and coached basketball at a local high school. He and his wife don’t have immediate plans for their winnings, the lottery said, but it should help with their nest egg.
Additionally, the Zip Zone that sold the winning ticket will receive $500.
The $50,000 Powerball win has been popular in Kentucky in recent weeks, with at least three other tickets worth that amount purchased across the state in May.
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This story was originally published May 29, 2024 at 12:20 PM.