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Show r EMM ti nfti ir CONTINUED taxes, is about $32,000. So after fixing up the house, buying some appliances and a new car, taking a vacation, putting cash aside for the kids' education, increasing their church donations, and helping out needy relatives, there isn't that much left. Not enough to buy a yacht or a mansion. Even if they want to buy a swimming pool, at today's prices they have to buy it on the installment plan. Some winners do indulge themselves with minor splurges, like a sleep-i- n maid, a gardener, a third car, or an expensive watch. About half the winners retain their old jobs and homes. Others, to escape the notoriety, take their phones out of circulation and, to avoid d friends, move to parts unknown. "It's too expensive to remain in the same community," one winner says. "Everywhere I go they call me 'the lady who won the $1 million,' and home contractors jack up the prices, the charities harass me, and the tradesmen expect bigger tips." ir V' Nv7 i i Bt To new-foun- i Best, all admit, is the euphoric South Boston student Carol loyce joyously holds up bags after winning grand drawing of the Massachusetts garet Spagnola, report a mail blizzard of marriage proposals since they were announced as $1 million winners. But Bronx, N.Y., cemetery worker Leo Ruggiero, 63, reports no great change in his "I'll just continue my work as a gardener at Woodlawn Cemetery for two more years so Ill be eligible for my pension," he said when he got news that he was richer by $1 million. Telephone lineman Ed Henry, who won New Jersey's first $1 million prize, had ideas of upping his scale of living, and went into the market for a Lincoln Continental. A few months later a friend spotted him feel- ing of financial security for the next two decades if it isn't eroded by inflation and higher taxes. A?some cases, the prizes have been won by people in sorely pressed In others, it hasn't meant all that much. When Walter J. Gorney, a maintenance worker, won $1 million in the Pennsylvania lottery, he told interviewers he planned to use the first check to help his handicapped son, Ronald, 28. "He lost his hearing to fever," Gorney said, "and I'm going to set him up in some kind of business." When Mrs. John Mizerak, of Little Falls, N.Y., received the first installment of her $1 million, she didn't show her husband the check. Instead, she let him feel the raised figures with his fingers Mr. Mizerak is blind. Bill Decker, a news photographer, got word that he'd won $300,000 in the Illinois State Lottery the same day that he lost his job with the folding of his newspaper, Chicago Today $100-a-mon- Want their cut Some winners report that friends, relatives and neighbors seem to expect a share of the winnings in the forms of gifts or other largesse. Frank DeVito of Sayreviile, N J , quit his tob as a plumber when he hit for $1 million. A nun for whom hed been fixing a bathtub for free asked him for a donation to her convent. He sent her a check for th iy :5 RESRfp driving a Ford station wagon. "What happened to your Continental?" he asked. "Too expensive," replied the millionaire. life-styl- e. rm State lottery The prize was $1000 a week for life. Since Carol is only 23, she can hope to collect about $3 million. money- - Comfortable feeling $200. Another nun, Sister Elizabeth Brown at Marymount College, Tarry-towN. Y won $25,000 and turned it all over to her favorite church. n, Estimates of the number of customers who buy lottery tickets m the U.S. run as high as 70 million a year. It's not necessary to be a resided of a lottery state to buy a ticket there, but the purchase must be made within the state, since its illegal to buy tickets by mail. Similarly, winners must travel to the state to collect. No one knows for sure how many paitici-patsince only winners' names become known. However, several big prizes have been won by For luck, some people purchase tickets in the names of their children or pets Pores have been won by cats in Illinois and parakeets in Michigan. In Jodi Ann Woodmere, N Y., Levine won $100,000 two years ago. But she'll have to wait 10 more years before picking up the money, because the law says you can't collect until the age of 18 rs e, ts . , . . . . V ' v -. rJv JV W . - .. j . ld .J-- p. , Cv'7 7' T' j,,,- - Jh ti r r 'V V w . "I v s' r Rich get richer Advice is free On the other hand, when George Ashton of West Hempstead, L I , a J C. Tenney Company executive, hit for $1 million in 1970, he said. "I really don't need it. If it bugs me enough, I'll get rid of it." Last year, a prosperous Massachusetts oil distributor won $1 donated most of it to charity. some- Sudden changes in times follow success in the lottery. Mrs. Rosemary C W'hen Pennsylvanian first $50,000 annual pay-2 Sutton got her million-doilticket in the ment for the cashed she check, packed the mail, her clothes, left a note for her husband, and took off for Florida. Two New Jer- and Mar- sey widows, Agnes Noweski atv.v; 1 ' il i . ' 3 7 1 X , V ' ' , V ; 3 r t v - i : j r - V '? VC;- '.X'7 j -- 7 5 Z. v -- . - J; v'V75.'i r:v7, K ar SC ' t . v, "- v t g!' Massachusetts, lottery officials have set up a program to give $1 million winners guidance on handling their sudden pot of gold. They are shown a film narrated by a panel of volunteers, a lawyer, a banker and a certified public accountant. "To leap in one year from a tax rate of 15 percent to one of 40 or 50 percent can be a harrowing experience," says CPA. Mike Cunningham. "We encounter mixed emotions the winner's jubilation of holding a check for $50,-00- 0 and his chagrin that a hefty chunk is going to be taken away." Cunningham's counsel to most winners is to sit tight. They are advised to In , life-sty- le o. rr i Irene Halley of Franklin Park, III., kisses the fust installment check of her $1 million To ease their taxes, winners receive $50,000 annually for 20 years continued |
