Your $590M Powerball Winner is…

05 Jun, 2013

An 84-year-old Florida woman who bought her Powerball ticket after another customer let her get ahead in line came forward Wednesday to claim the $590 million jackpot, becoming the largest sole lottery winner in U.S. history.

Gloria C. Mackenzie, of Zephyrhills, where the winning ticket was sold May 18, took a single lump sum payment of just over $370 million, Florida Lottery officials said. After paying 25 percent for federal income taxes, Mackenzie is taking home about $270 million, officials said.

She did not speak to a crowd of reporters outside lottery headquarters, leaving quickly in a silver Ford Focus with her son, Scott Mackenzie, and family friends. She was accompanied by two unidentified attorneys, who left in a separate car.

MacKenzie bought the winning ticket at a Publix supermarket, a town of about 13,300 people located 30 miles northeast of Tampa. It is best known for bottled spring water that bears its name – and now one of the biggest lottery winners of all time.

In a statement read by lottery officials, Mackenzie said she purchased the ticket after another buyer “was kind enough to let me go ahead in line to purchase the winning ticket.” Mackenzie played a quick-pick ticket, in which the numbers are generated randomly by lottery computers. She said she also purchased four other tickets for the same drawing.

“We are grateful with this blessing of winning the Florida Lottery Powerball jackpot. We appreciate the interest from the public, state of Florida and the lottery,” the statement said. “We hope that everyone would give us the opportunity to maintain our privacy for our family’s benefit.”

Mentioned In This Post: