Norris lives in Illinois, but he works in Missouri, and lives close enough to the Kentucky border to allow him to pop over the state line and buy Kentucky lottery tickets as well. Norris, who is a forklift truck driver in Cape Girardeau, usually buys his Missouri Lotto tickets on the way to work. He bought his winning ticket at D-Mart Shell, on William Street, but failed to check it until a week after the December 10, drawing.
When Norris finally placed the ticket in a Check-A-Ticket machine and saw the numbers "$208" he thought, "There's no prize for $208." Then he noticed the row of zeros next to the numbers. "If I had me a bad heart," he said. "I might have croaked."
Norris has been playing the lottery for 44 years, and his largest win prior to this was four years ago, when he won a $1,000 Pick 4 prize. His latest win is a more respectable reward for over forty years of dedicated playing, and he intends to buy a new car, but says the rest of the money will stay in the bank. Norris says his big dream now is to win the (US) Powerball. "I'm still trying for the millions there, because I want to have a good retirement," Norris said.
