NASHVILLE, Tenn., (Reuters) – A Tennessee couple holding one of three winning tickets for this week’s record $1.6 billion U.S. Powerball lottery jackpot said yesterday they will keep their jobs because “you just can’t sit down and do nothing.”
Lisa and John Robinson of Munford, Tennessee, appeared at a press conference at the Tennessee Lottery’s offices with their adult daughter Tiffany and black and white dog Abby and said they would take their $528.8 million share in an immediate cash payment instead of annual payments over 29 years.
“We’re going to take the lump sum because we’re not guaranteed tomorrow,” John Robinson said.
They will pay off their two children’s student loans as well as their own mortgage and, after investing the rest of their new-found fortune, keep living in the same home, with the same jobs, in the Memphis suburb of Munford.
“Big fancy houses, elaborate houses, they’re nice. But you have to clean them,” John Robinson said.
Next week, he will return to his job at a distribution center and Lisa to her position at a dermatologist’s office, they said.
“That’s what we’ve done all our life. Work. You can’t just sit down and do nothing,” he said.
Robinson recalled buying the lucky ticket on Wednesday just hours before the Powerball drawing.
His wife asked him to buy tickets on his way home from work, so, even though he didn’t feel well, he bought them at Naifeh’s Food Mart in Munford.
