Red carpet arrival: Retired businessman wins $500,000

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

ATLANTA – A Dalton man, who is retired from the carpet industry, is welcoming a half-million dollar prize. Lonnie “Ronald” Headrick, 72, played the Georgia Lottery instant game $500,000 Riches and won a $500,000 top prize.

He was with family in Ellijay when he won the prize. New Hope Grocery, 3140 Chatsworth Highway in Ellijay, sold the winning ticket.

“My wife helped me scratch the ticket,” he said. “When I told her what we’d won, she said, ‘You’re not reading that right.’ ”

Headrick and his wife, Pat, have two adult children and two grandchildren. He retired 10 years ago as a self-employed businessman in the carpet industry.

“It feels real,” he said. “It’s taking a while to soak in.”

The lucky lottery winner plans to share his windfall with family.

Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corporation has returned more than $11.4 billion to the state of Georgia for education. All Georgia Lottery profits go to pay for specific educational programs including Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship Program and Georgia’s Pre-K Program. More than 1.2 million students have received HOPE, and more than 1 million 4-year-olds have attended the statewide, voluntary prekindergarten program.

For more information, please visit the Media Center on the Georgia Lottery Web site at:
www.galottery.com

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Tandi Reddick
Media Relations Manager

P 404.215.5062
F 404.215.8983
media [at] galottery [dot] org

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