THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 20, 1996 TAG: 9601200280
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
Cha-chinnng!!
Lucy lucked out. Big time.
Lucy R. Wilson, former chairwoman of Norfolk's School Board and one of the region's top educators, recently won $48,070 playing the Double Dolphin slot machine game at Harrah's in Atlantic City.
Her smiling mug shot is featured in the current issue of Harrah's World, a casino publication.
Several board members and central office administrators got a chuckle out of the news Thursday, when George Raiss, the board clerk, showed them a copy of the page. Raiss said someone slipped him a copy in the inter-office mail.
Wilson, who retired last year from her job as Old Dominion University's associate vice president of student services, could not be reached for comment Friday. Her husband, Norfolk State University President Harrison B. Wilson, was out of town, a receptionist said.
Wilson is well-known for her wit, intelligence, patrician demeanor and killer outfits.
And her lucky streaks in Atlantic City aren't exactly a secret, either.
``She tends to win every time she goes,'' Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr. said Thursday, as the buzz spread throughout a conference room before official School Board business was under way.
``I understand she's very lucky in Atlantic City,'' board Chairman Ulysses Turner said later.
A spokesman for the casino said he didn't know exactly when Wilson hit pay dirt. But she had to win between October and December to appear in the current issue of Harrah's World, he said.
Turner said he wanted to remind Wilson of, er, just one small thing: ``Things are pretty austere in the school system. . . . We operate on a very austere budget,'' he said. by CNB