Lady luck was on her side

By Kate Northrop

SPRING HOPE, N.C. — A rather lucky woman made the trip back to the North Carolina Lottery to collect a $700,000 top prize, her second big jackpot win to-date.

Judy Marshburn of Spring Hope defied the odds when she won not just one lottery jackpot, but two.

In June 2008, Marshburn hit a Cash 5 jackpot to the tune of $307,726. Back for more, she managed to hit yet another top prize worth more than twice the first.

"I doubled my win this time," the winner told the Lottery. "Next time I'm coming for the million."

She revived her luck at the Stop N Shop grocery store on East Nash Street in Spring Hope, where she purchased the winning "Scorching Hot 7s" scratch-off ticket for $10.

The stars must have aligned for her, since the ticket she picked out held the first of the game's four top prizes of $700,000.

"I looked at it and I just couldn't believe it," the 57-year-old recalled. "I'm just very blessed."

Marshburn took a trip to Lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Wednesday, where she collected her second major prize. After federal and state taxes, she took home a nice sum of $497,073.

Only having just launched last week, the winner claimed the first of the four available top prizes in the $10 "Scorching Hot 7s" scratch-off game. Three top prizes of $700,000 remain, as well as 15 out of 18 second-tier prizes of $10,000 and 63 out of 69 third-tier prizes of $5,000.