Julie Leach: Lone Powerball Winner Of $310.5 Million Is A Michigan Grandmother, Will Ensure Family Never Has To Work


Julie Leach is the lone Powerball winner of the latest $310.5 million jackpot. Leach is from Michigan and purchased her lottery ticket from a Shell gas station in Three Rivers. The 50-year-old grandmother discovered her winnings while she was waiting in line at a McDonald’s drive-thru during her late-hour lunch break, Heavy reports.

Leach, who worked at a fiberglass manufacturer before winning the huge jackpot, had talked with her family before about the dreams she had for such a windfall. The $310.5 million Powerball winner told the media in a press conference how surreal this all is and says that she’s “still just in disbelief” at the whole thing.

“It’s crazy, just unreal. Never thought it would happen. I’m still just in disbelief. I just don’t know what to say. My main focus was getting somebody to help me so I can make the right decisions and the right choices. We’ve always talked around campfires and stuff, said if we ever won the lottery, we wanted to buy a bunch of land and build our kids homes.”

That’s exactly what Julie Leach is going to do. She wants to ensure that her kids and grandchildren don’t ever have to work nearly as hard as she had to in life. Talk about one lucky family!

“I’m going to take care of my kids. I don’t want them to have to work like I had to work and deal with the kinds of things I had to deal with over life. I just want to make it a good life for them, take care of them.”

Leach has been with her boyfriend of 36 years, Vaughn Avery. Some reports speculate that it’s unclear if this will make a difference in whether he’ll propose or not! Leach joked that she’d make him sign a prenup. The news loves a scoop, especially on lottery winners. No doubt there will be a little interest on this front when it comes to Leach.

The Powerball winning numbers were 21, 39, 40, 55, 59 and 17. Imagine the shock Leach experienced when she checked her lottery ticket numbers while fighting boredom waiting in the drive-thru line at McDonald’s. Either way, she quit her job instantly and plans to enjoy the rest of her life without the burdens of working every single day. The dream she had of winning the lottery came true — a dream millions of lottery ticket players hope for all their lives.

The Denver Channel reports that Leach opted for the lump sum payment of $197 million, which is about $140 million after taxes. She purchased 20 tickets as part of a lottery pool with co-workers, but later went out and purchased an extra ticket; that was the winning ticket.

Julie Leach is a native of Three Rivers, Michigan, which is about 160 miles west of Detroit.

Michigan Live reported soon after the $310.5 million Powerball drawing that Regina Bontrager, the Shell station manager, learned who the winner was. She didn’t identify the ticket buyer, but there were rumors that a man had tried claiming he won. Later on, Bontrager revealed that she heard the winner was a supervisor at a local plant.

Julie Leach is the third Powerball winner in Michigan history, Heavy added in its report. Donald Lawson won $337 million in 2012 and Team Victory won $128.6 million in November 2010. Interesting enough, Team Victory actually purchased their ticket from an adult store.

There isn’t just one Powerball winner in this $310.5 million jackpot. Julie Leach is sharing her good fortune with her entire family.

[Photo Credit: Twitter]

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