LANSING, Mich. — A supervisor at a Michigan fiberglass factory who won a $310.5 million Powerball jackpot said Tuesday that she immediately quit her one-time “nasty, dirty” job and will buy land to build houses for her family.

Julie Leach of Three Rivers said she was having a “really bad night” working the third shift when she took her lunch break at McDonald’s. She checked the six numbers in the drive-thru line around 1 a.m. Thursday.

Powerball winner Julie Leach holds a ceremonial check for $310.5 million Tuesday.
Powerball winner Julie Leach holds a ceremonial check for $310.5 million Tuesday. The Associated Press

“I keep going to sleep and waking up with the same beautiful dream,” the 50-year-old told reporters during a news conference at the Michigan Lottery headquarters. Her partner of 36 years, Vaughn Avery, and some of their children and grandchildren looked on.

“I’m going to take care of my kids,” Leach said. “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.”

She took a one-time lump payment of $197.4 million, about $140 million after taxes.

Leach played in a lottery pool with her co-workers. But at Avery’s urging, she stopped to buy coffee and $20 worth of Powerball tickets at the Three Rivers West Shell gas station on the way to work Wednesday night. At first, she did not believe she had won, checking the numbers many times and returning to the Aquatic Bathware plant to ask co-workers to verify the win. Then she went home and woke up Avery, her high school sweetheart.

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