Georgia woman has 1 of 2 winning lottery tickets

Published 10:21 am Thursday, December 19, 2013

ATLANTA — Lottery officials say a Georgia woman has one of the two winning tickets to the $636 million Mega Millions jackpot, the second-largest in U.S. history.

Lottery officials identified her as Ira Curry, of Stone Mountain, which is east of Atlanta. Officials say she bought one ticket and chose the numbers herself, using family birthdays and her family’s lucky number, which is 7.

Curry did not attend the news conference. The other winning ticket was sold at a gift shop in San Jose, Calif.

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The winning ticket in Georgia was sold at a newsstand in Buckhead, a financial center of Atlanta.

Georgia Lottery chief executive Debbie Alford said Curry is in a state of shock and that she plans to take the lump sum payout of $123 million after taxes.