Morgan City woman claims Powerball prize

March Madness unfolds
February 26, 2013
Transitioning to the core
February 26, 2013
March Madness unfolds
February 26, 2013
Transitioning to the core
February 26, 2013

A 40-year-old Morgan City woman is Louisiana’s latest millionaire.

Lottery officials say Amy Sturges won $2 million after matching all five white numbers drawn in the Feb. 16 Powerball game but missed the red Powerball. The numbers were: 15, 16, 46, 50, 58, Powerball 29.


Because she added the Power Play option to her Quick Pick ticket, the usual $1 million prize doubled. Her extra investment was $1, officials said.


Lottery officials last Wednesday said Sturges purchased her ticket at Mel-Star Inc., which will get a one-time bonus of $20,000, 1 percent of the jackpot, for selling the winning ticket.

After federal and state taxes were withheld, Sturges received $1.4 million.


Sturges and her husband, Warren, said they’d already decided to buy a new camper. He says now, maybe they’ll consider getting an upgrade.

“Now I’ll have to send something to my mom so she’ll believe me,” Amy Sturges said when she visited Lottery headquarters in Baton Rouge to collect her winnings.

After learning a winning Powerball ticket had been sold in Morgan City, Sturges’ two teenagers urged their mother to check he ticket. On Sunday, the couple visited the Mel-Star store on Martin Luther King Boulevard – where they purchased the ticket – to have it verified.

The store clerk told the Sturges she hoped the winner was someone she knew.

“She was so happy to find out it was us,” Amy Sturges said. The clerk who sold the winning ticket was among the many people to send a congratulatory text the day the couple retrieved their winnings.

Louisiana Lottery Powerball winner Amy Sturges and her husband Warren retrieve their $2 million winnings in the Feb. 16 Powerball drawing.