$1 million Powerball winner gives back by giving blood

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — One of the first things Linda Windey did after picking up her $1 million prize in Wednesday's Powerball drawing was take a needle in her arm at the blood drive in front of Kentucky Lottery headquarters.

Why?

"It just made sense. I had a million dollars fall out of the sky," said Windey, 41, of Parish, N.Y., who bought her winning ticket in Walton, Ky., while staying with family.

Everybody is fixated on who might have the three winning tickets sold in California, Florida and Tennessee for the $1.586 billion grand prize, but Windey was one of 73 $1 million winners in 23 states across the USA, according to Multi-State Lottery Association officials. Eight of the more than 26 million tickets sold were $2 million winners because they paid an extra dollar to kick in the Power Play option.

The single mother of three children ages 10 to 17 matched the five white balls on one of her three tickets but not the red Powerball. She said she has no grand designs for spending her windfall and doesn't plan to stop working.

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She wants to spend wisely and provide for her children, she said.

"It's the wrong time to be irresponsible," said Windey, who drove her family Thursday to Louisville to claim the prize.

She has been living with her brother in Bethel, Ohio, east of Cincinnati, so she could work a temporary job at the eBay distribution center in Walton. She has worked as a nurse in the past and said at a news conference that she has had financial struggles.

"I'm just thinking I can take better care of my kids now," said Windey, a longtime lottery player.

Her ceremonial check may have had $1 million written on it, but the federal government automatically withholds 25% of the winnings and Kentucky takes out 6%. That puts the amount of money that she takes home at $690,000, but it won't be all that she'll owe eventually in taxes.

Head-of-household taxpayers with a taxable income of $441,000 in 2016 will end up in the 39.6% federal tax bracket, according to the Tax Foundation. And her status as a temporary Ohio resident and permanent New York resident may mean additional payouts that only an accountant can decipher — and potentially closer to $500,000 in money that's really hers.

Windey's 17-year-old son, Edward Blunt, said his mother had played the lottery for as long as he could remember but never won more than $20 on a single ticket.

The idea of winning became a running joke between him and his mom, the teen said.

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So when Windey woke up her son at about 2:30 a.m. with news of their bounty, he was skeptical, thinking it was a continuation of the joke, he said.

"I just went back to bed," Edward said. "I didn't believe it."

At first, Windey didn't believe it either.

"I checked the numbers six or seven times," she said.

Contributing: Sheldon S. Shafer, The (Louisville) Courier-Journal. Follow Patrick Brennan on Twitter: @PBrennanENQ