A $12-million birthday gift? That's the ticket

A woman buys her husband a lottery ticket. "You don't have to work any more,'' he tells her.

By SHELBY OPPEL

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 18, 2000

TALLAHASSEE -- For nearly all of their 13-year marriage, Danny and Sharon Evans have played the Florida Lottery.

So the Quick Pick ticket that Sharon tucked in Danny's 46th birthday card was no big deal -- until the couple discovered it was worth $12-million.

"When I did get the (news)paper, I kept looking at it and looking at it. I matched the numbers and I matched the numbers," Danny Evans said. "It was just like a warm feeling went through my body."

Evans opened his card Oct. 2 at the couple's east Tampa home. He phoned his wife -- an accountant he fondly calls "Ms. Tight Pockets" -- at her job at a Tampa chemical company.

"I said, "Hey, babe . . . you don't have to work any more,' " Evans said.

Mrs. Evans didn't believe her husband when he told her they had won. That's because he has called her at work every Monday for almost 13 years with the same news. It was their little joke.

The last time was different.

"He was very nervous. He was crying," Mrs. Evans recalled.

Still, she doubted. Get in the car and get over here, she told him.

"I said, "Drive very carefully. And let me see it,' " she said.

The Evanses chose to take their winnings in a one-time payment of $6,278,287.26 instead of 30 annual payments of about $400,000. And Mrs. Evans, 39, promptly quit her job.

"I gave them one week's notice," she said.

The couple have six children, 18 to 28 years old, but only the youngest son lives at home. They also have 10 grandchildren.

The money, Evans said, "will be a family blessing. We will have more time together, and a lot more time to do things with the family."

The federal government withholds about 28 percent of the jackpot for income taxes, which means the Evans' actual payoff is about $4.5-million. If they had chosen annual payments, they would have received about $288,000 each year.

Evans has not worked for three years since being injured while employed by Tampa's public works department, he said. Public records show he has received multiple workers' compensation payments.

Despite Mrs. Evans' salary, the family had been living paycheck to paycheck, Evans said. To save money, Mrs. Evans brought bag lunches to work.

On the day her husband arrived with the winning ticket, Mrs. Evans handed him the bag lunch.

"You can take this back home," she said. "We're going to Church's Fried Chicken!"

For the accountant and her husband, the splurge ended there.

"I think that night we had hot dogs," Mrs. Evans said.

Listening to his sister at a news conference Tuesday, Mrs. Evans' brother, Rawn Godwin, smiled and shook his head. Godwin and Mr. Evans' sister, Linda Evans, drove with the couple Tuesday from Tampa to Tallahassee, where the Evanses claimed their prize at Florida Lottery headquarters.

"They made us chip in for the gas to get up here," said Godwin, 38.

Sharon Evans purchased the $1 ticket at the Winn Dixie Marketplace store at 2525 E Hillsborough Ave. in Tampa. A computer selected six numbers at random, which matched the six Florida Lotto numbers drawn Sept. 30. Two days later, Mr. Evans opened his birthday card with the ticket inside.

To win, the Evanses beat odds estimated at 1 in 23-million. The winning numbers were 19-29-30-35-52-53.

- Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

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