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Saturday, October 25, 1997

Texas City lotto winners claim prize

By CHIP BROWN Associated Press Writer

AUSTIN (AP) - One by one, a waitress, a maintenance worker, two cashiers and a school bus driver came into the Corner Mart in Texas City last Saturday night.

One by one, Artis Beal, a soft-spoken, 73-year-old retired industrial plant worker, asked if they wanted to put $5 into a pool for the $55 million Lotto Texas drawing.

Some, he knew. Others, he had only seen in the store before.

He took money, wrote names down and after 20 people had pitched in $5 apiece, he bought $100 worth of tickets.

By midnight, he - or more importantly his handwriting and memory - were the biggest thing going on in Texas City since two local high school football teams were ranked in the top 10 in Class 4A, earlier this season.

Beal's pool had the only winning ticket, and he was now faced with trying to get all the winners together. He had no phone numbers. No addresses. Only names. And in some instances, he had inadvertently written down just the first name or the wrong name.

On Friday, however, no one was holding Beal's poor secretarial duties against him as the pool claimed the $55 million jackpot.

"I'll give you an example of how we didn't know each other," said one of the winners, Ray Guidry, a construction company manager, who had never met Beal before the pool.

"We had the name Berry written down and that person was really Bettye. Mr. Beal knew people. He knew faces. But he didn't know their names, exactly," Guidry said.

"I thought I wrote down all the names," Beal said.

Through friends of friends and asking around, the names of all the pool participants were determined.

Because Beal opted to receive the money in a lump sum, a trust formed by the winners called the "Texas City Lucky Lotto Club" received $28.2 million, less 28 percent withheld for federal taxes.

"Even though we are from diverse backgrounds, there's really 20 honest people and no one wanted anyone else's share," Guidry said. "The woman named Bettye that we had listed as Berry was a woman who had been a waitress working the night shift most of her life. Who would want to cheat her?"

It was Guidry's idea to wake up Texas City Mayor Chuck Doyle, also Texas First Bank chairman, and get him to put the winning ticket into a night drop bag at the bank at 2 a.m. Sunday.

"The only reason there was a question of security is when you realize that there is that much money involved and there's just one ticket and by midnight there was a bunch of people in this little bitty store from different backgrounds and different cultures," Guidry said.

"I don't want to call it mistrust. We just didn't have any guidance. So when you have that kind of mini-chaos, you just say, 'Hey, let's get it all together here and let's find a bank to secure this ticket in.' "

Winner Bettye Reed has worked the 4:30 a.m. shift at Kelley's Restaurant in La Marque for the past 9-1/2 years.

This is the second time she's won a large sum from the Texas Lottery. One week after her husband died, four years ago, she took $5 out of his billfold and bought five Quick Pick tickets. She hit five of six numbers and won $2,177.

"I needed $2,100 to finish paying for his funeral arrangements, and I used the winnings for that," she said.

With her latest winnings she plans to invest, so she doesn't have to work anymore. "My feet need a rest," she said.

Salim Khatani, owner of the Corner Mart, received $500,000 as a 1 percent bonus for selling the winning ticket.

"It's a group of very good people who come into the store all the time," said Khatani, who moved to Texas 15 years ago from Pakistan. "I'm very happy for them. I hope they keep playing."Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
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