Graduate Student Becomes Multimillionaire Overnight

July 17, 2008
SAN DIEGO, Calif.
Kennedy Vermilion

UCSD Graduate Student, Flannery O’Connor, won $75 million in the California Super Lotto Friday.

“It’s a little tempting just to fly off to Paris and live there for the rest of my life,” O’Connor stated after announcing her big win.

O’Connor does not play the lottery. She stated, “I don’t even play those scratcher things.” Her brother, a lotto regular, bought her a ticket at a Del Mar 7-Eleven. She chose the numbers 03-07-17-25-57 because of their personal significance. O’Connor’s favorite numbers are three and seven. Her mother’s birthday is the 17th, her father’s birthday is the 25th, and her mother’s age is 57. “I won $75 million and he won a liter of Pepsi,” O’Connor stated.

CheapDeal_MonopolyMoney.jpg

The California Super Lotto paid O’Connor in a lump sum. About $50,000 in taxes were taken out, but she did not complain. She reassured a little less than $75 million is enough. “Grad students don’t make a whole lot of money,” she said.

On July 11, 2008 around 8 p.m., O’Connor was getting ready for a night out while watching television. The numbers from her lottery ticket displayed on the screen and she realized she had won. O’Connor checked her ticket multiple times and screamed before she believed she had won, she stated. “I never thought I would win the lottery,” she said.

As a musician, O’Connor has a love for music that she wants to share with others. “I always played Mozart and Beethoven,” she said. After playing in bands, she has shifted from classical music to rock & roll. She plans to start a rock & roll camp for girls and purchase a house in Bloominton, Ind. Also, O’Connor wants to take her mother on a dream vacation to Italy.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License