Mega Millions winner Ira Curry still works for the company that employed her Tuesday – before she hit the lottery.
The 56-year-old won a share of a historic $648 million jackpot from Tuesday night's drawing, which she will split with a winner in San Jose, Calif., who picked the same numbers.
After taxes, her half of the winnings is about $120 million, the largest lottery take home in Georgia history.
Lottery officials said the jackpot was the second largest in U.S. history, behind a March 2012 win of $656 with winners in Illinois, Maryland and Kansas.
Curry is a vice president and property underwriting manager for London-based Aspen Insurance and has worked in the company’s Buckhead office for roughly five years, company officials said.
“Ira is a valued long-term employee with Aspen, and the entire Aspen team is thrilled for her and her family,” Aspen CEO and president of Aspen US Insurance Mario Vitale said in an emailed statement. “It could not have happened to a nicer person, and we are excited for her good fortune.”
While her name is out in the public, Curry and her husband, Talmer, remained out of the spotlight on Thursday.
There was no indication anyone was at her home near Stone Mountain.
Repeated phone calls went unanswered and a phone greeting indicated that her voice mail was full and could not receive additional messages.
Outside her house, local and national reporters waited with the hopes of scoring an interview, or at least grabbing a few words from her.
Meanwhile, Channel 2 Action News reported that several financial planners and tax advisers stopped by the home to knock on the door then tuck a business card between the front door and door jam.
And a bouquet of roses was left at her doorstep.
Curry is reportedly from the Bronx, N.Y., where her two younger sisters still live.
The younger of the two sisters, Jalunda Baker Price, told the New York Daily News that she was “stunned … it’s just really hitting me, it’s true,” when the realization of her oldest sister’s good fortune set in.
Price said she and her sister Brenda Baker expected to move.
In San Jose, the owner of the store that sold the winning ticket will receive a $1 million bonus, according to reports.
But in Atlanta, there will be no such bonus for the owner of Gateway Newsstands, where Curry bought her winning ticket, lottery officials said.
Lottery spokesman J.B. Landroche said retailers are paid 6 percent of the price of each ticket, and therefore get no such reward for selling a winner.
— Staff reporter Mike Morris contributed to this report.
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