A Bartow County woman had a payday Friday that she’ll never forget.

Karen Privette, a senior warehouse clerk from Adairsville, picked up a $1 million check from the Georgia Lottery after presenting a winning 50X The Money ticket she purchased at a Cobb County store.

She bought the ticket at the Big Shanty Superette on South Main Street in Kennesaw. The mini-market is next to a gasoline station and Privette said she’d stopped to buy used tires for her husband’s van.

“I scratched it at the back of the store,” she told lottery officials Friday, and the tears began to flow. “It was such a shock.”

Privette, who is married with two adult daughters, said auto finance companies will be the first beneficiaries of her newfound wealth. She plans to pay off her car loan and her daughters’ loans. She’ll also buy her husband a new car and pay off her mother’s credit card, she told lottery officials.

And she probably won’t be buying any more used tires.

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