Two lucky metro Atlantans win big Georgia lottery jackpots

By Fran Jeffries

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Henry County woman and an Atlanta man are each a half-million dollars richer after recent Georgia Lottery wins.

Ladies first: Bonnie Dennis of Stockbridge won $500,000 playing the instant game Jumbo Jumbo Bucks. She bought her ticket at Eagles Landing Food Mart, 105 Eagles Landing Parkway in Stockbridge, on her way to visit a friend in Stone Mountain.

The store wasn’t too far from my friend’s house,” she said. “I was sitting in my car when I scratched it.”

Dennis, 48, drove to her friend’s house where she showed off the winning ticket. “When she got excited, I got excited,” she recalled. “We both took three or four looks.”

Dennis has one adult daughter and works as an employment specialist for people with disabilities.

“My future is secure,” she said. “I’ll put some in savings, my house will be paid off as well as my daughter’s car.”

Now the gentleman: Carter Braxton Pope of Atlanta matched all five numbers in the Oct. 3 Fantasy 5 drawing, winning the $483,987 jackpot prize.

Pope, 78, said he used a combination of his own lucky numbers in creating his winning mix. “I looked at the history of Fantasy 5 numbers and chose ones that hadn’t come up in a while,” he said. Winning numbers from the Fantasy 5 drawing were: 11-12-17-32-37.  Pope bought the ticket at Publix at 2020 Howell Mill Road in Atlanta. He discovered his win on the Georgia Lottery’s website.  “I was in disbelief,” he said. “The numbers just jumped out at me off of the screen.”

The commercial real estate agent and his wife Donna have two adult daughters -- one who was a HOPE recipient who graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in biology. The couple are expecting their first grandchild next month. “We’re going to pay off bills and put the rest in savings,” Pope said.

Meanwhile, no one won Saturday night in the $105 million Powerball drawing. The Powerball jackpot is expected to grow to $124 million Wednesday.