Wheel of Fortune : Lottery’s Big One--10 Will Spin for $2 Million

With a spin of the drum and a blindfolded draw, the first 10 people with a chance to become millionaires in the California State Lottery were selected Tuesday at the Pico Rivera Sports Arena.

Since a third of the proceeds will go to public schools, two educators--Roberta Weintraub, a member of the Los Angeles Board of Education, and Nick Floratos, Sacramento County school district superintendent--were chosen to pluck the winning numbers from a large translucent plastic cylinder.

“Oh gosh, this is really exciting!” Weintraub said with a giggle as the spinning drum came to a halt. A man with a shiny lawman’s badge broke the seal, and she reached inside and pulled out a little green capsule about the size of a pillbox.

“No. 5482,” an official intoned solemnly. The capsule was passed around, and several other officials nodded somberly in agreement.

Long Beach Woman

Somebody checked a list, and No. 5482 turned out to be Valerie Lunceford of Long Beach, the first person to earn a shot at winning $2 million in the lottery.

The drum containing the names of the first 6,250 winners of California Jackpot instant $100 prizes began to spin once more. “It works similar to a cement mixer,” one official said. Each time it came to a halt, Weintraub or Floratos fished out another winner.

Lunceford, along with Lillian Barlow of Littlerock, William Barlow of Huntington Beach, Ronald Chester of Merced, James Fair of Oakland, Glenda Glass of San Jose, Anthony Noonis of Carmichael, Bill Peters of Bakersfield, Randy Shaw of Salinas and Carolyn Stults of Simi Valley, will be eligible for a grand prize drawing in Hollywood on Oct. 28.

Televised Ceremony

In a televised ceremony that night all 10 will spin a wheel that guarantees each a minimum payoff of $10,000--and a potential of $2 million.

The wheel contains 100 slots--40 worth $10,000, 30 worth $50,000, 20 worth $100,000 and 10 worth $2 million. That means each contestant selected on Tuesday has a 1-in-10 chance at $2 million in the lottery.

Lunceford, 38, a mother of two who works as a cosmetologist in Lynwood, said she, her husband--a Los Angeles County deputy sheriff--and their two daughters, ages 16 and 12, will probably take a trip.

And what will she do if she wins the big one?

“I haven’t really thought about it,” she said. “I’m still trying to get over the shock.”

For Carolyn Stults, 45, a housewife whose husband owns a gas station in Sepulveda, Tuesday was a “crazy day.” Her lottery luck lit up an afternoon dimmed by the smoke of brush fires.

On her way home from a Bible study class, she was forced off the freeway when police closed it because of flames crossing the road.

“As I walked through the door, friends were calling and telling me I won the lottery,” she said. “Right in the middle of all the excitement, I heard on the news they were evacuating Moorpark College, where my son is a student.”

Free Ticket

Stults said she got her winning ticket free at a market as an inducement to buy a 12-pack of soda pop. “That’s the sweetest 7-Up I ever drank,” she said. “I sure enjoyed every can.”

For Lillian Barlow, 58, of Littlerock--a wide spot on California 138 in the desert near Palmdale--the luck of the draw means she’ll be heading for Chardon, Ohio, to visit her oldest son, James, whom she hasn’t seen in 13 years.

It also means “we’ll be able to live now instead of just exist,” she said.

Barlow and her husband, Gerald, 64--a house painter now disabled with arthritis--live in a small rented house on an income of $599 a month.

“We count our pennies every day,” said the new winner, who bought 10 lottery tickets on opening day, Oct. 3. The $100 ticket was the sixth she scratched off inside a video store in Palmdale. She said she had never played a lottery and had “never won a thing before that amounted to anything.”

‘That’s Fantastic’

William Barlow Jr. (no relation to the Littlerock Barlows) is the manager of a solar heating company in Orange County. He said he had been away from his office all day--so lottery officials could not reach him by phone.

But when workers at a construction site told him the news, he was delighted. “That’s great; that’s fantastic!” he said.

Barlow said he isn’t fond of wagering--”gambling doesn’t interest me”--but he bought $20 worth of tickets because “I do feel that the schools will benefit from the lottery.”

While he hasn’t figured out what to do with the money he will win, Barlow said he “would like to buy a house and live an easier life.” However, he said that no matter what he wins in the Oct. 28 drawing, “I’m not going to change my working life style.”

Mixed Blessing

Fair, 71, an Oakland janitor who invested $10 in the lottery on opening day, said that around his house, his good fortune is seen as a mixed blessing.

His wife, Otha, is opposed to gambling, but Fair said, “We have five kids in Chicago we’ll go see, and my mother-in-law in Detroit. And maybe I’ll buy me a new suit.”