ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 27, 1996 TAG: 9611270030
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCKOLS STAFF WRITER
THE RICHARDSES say the millions won't change them. James Richards vacuumed their home after discovering the news.
James A. Richards Sr. was vacuuming the carpets of his Roanoke County home Thursday morning when he paused to check the lottery numbers in the newspaper.
The winning numbers - 7, 17, 18, 19, 33 and 43 - matched the ticket he had purchased last week at CJ's Market in Salem. He had won $4.35 million.
His wife, Martha, wasn't home, so Richards had some time to kill while he waited for her to return. He picked up the vacuum cleaner and went back to work.
"I just went on doing what I was doing," he said.
When Martha Richards got home, she was greeted by clean carpets and big news.
"He says, `I won,'" she recalled.
She said there was only one sign that her husband was affected by the news.
"Tears came down," she said, tracing her fingertips down her cheeks.
The Richardses picked up their first check Tuesday for $219,635 ($149,351 after taxes) from the Virginia Lottery's Roanoke regional office. They will split the total $8.7 million Lotto jackpot with John and Jennifer Thomas of Alexandria, who turned in their winning ticket on Monday. Both couples will receive another 19 annual payments of $217,500 ($147,500 after taxes).
The Richardses, both retired from General Electric, said they have no specific plans for spending their money other than sharing it with their children and grandchildren. They said they will continue living in their brick ranch home near Hanging Rock.
"We'll just go on like always," James Richards said.
"It's not going to change us," added Martha Richards. "We're going to be the same."
Unlike the Richardses, the clerk who sold them the ticket Wednesday afternoon at CJ's Market in Salem, was visibly excited.
"I've been about to die waiting to find out who won," Debbie Dooley said as she rang up food purchases for a Salem street crew. "I've got a headache trying to figure out who I sold it to."
She had convinced herself the winner was a regular customer who appears for a ticket every Wednesday and Saturday - but didn't show up this past Saturday.
"If he won Wednesday, he wouldn't need to come in Saturday, right?" Dooley said. "I guess I'll never see him again."
Actually, Richards said he usually buys one or two tickets twice a week at the Hanging Rock Grocery.
"It was just luck that we went [to CJ's]," Martha Richards said.
She said she and her husband plan to keep a low profile, and they have declined requests for photographs.
"Everywhere we go, people would say, `There they go,''' she said. "We just don't want a lot of publicity."
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