‘Why Should We Change?’ : Lottery Millionaires: Most Are Bearing Up

Ivanell Kitchen doesn’t blush anymore when she walks through a store in this serene Sierra Nevada town and hears whispers, “There’s the millionaire!”

The 49-year-old retired beautician says she has even caused stirs in Chico, 60 miles southwest, and past the state line in Reno, Nev., 90 miles southeast.

The hardy folks of Northern California’s high country chat more about snowstorms and firewood prices than the celebrities a couple of life styles away in Hollywood, but they confess they’re a bit awed by the sudden fortune of one of their own in the state lottery.

People in the more populous regions to the south apparently are a bit less dazzled by lottery winners. In interviews with the Associated Press, others on the current list of the 10 biggest winners in the 15-month-old lottery described bright but rather brief turns under the spotlight.

Positive Effects

Generally, the newly rich say they are making wise use of the windfalls, which have brought more good than bad. They say more security, luxuries, travel, and time for avocations outweigh the taxes that gouge, relatives that fawn, reporters who hound, and investors who clamor.

After Kitchen spun a lottery wheel that hit $4.4 million last Feb. 15, she said, a department store clerk in Chico gushed, “Are you the person who won the lottery? It’s so nice to meet you. It’s great to know you shop here.”

In Reno, a long-lost friend found Kitchen when her name was called over a casino restaurant loudspeaker. “I knew it had to be you!” the friend jabbered in congratulating the winner.

“They all say, ‘You haven’t changed a bit.’ Why would we change?” asked Kitchen, who dressed in blue jeans and a sweater for the interview and said she still shops for bargains.

Has a Housekeeper

A maid cleans the house now, and Tom Kitchen, Ivanell Kitchen’s 45-year-old husband of two years, quit barbering but still performs in a country rock band and has taken up oil painting. He fishes more too.

The Kitchens plan to escape the lake-freezing temperatures, which she has endured for 36 years, and he for 15 years, by wintering in San Diego and taking cruises to Hawaii and the Caribbean. But Chester, a town of about 1,750 people nestled at a 4,500-foot elevation on a plateau ringed by mountains, will remain their home for the rest of the year.

The first of the $174,365 checks she will receive annually for 20 years--the lottery deducts 20% for federal income taxes--was used to add stones to his wedding ring, visit Arkansas relatives, remodel their home in a treeless, snow-padded neighborhood, build a garage, and buy a new Dodge pickup and a 1973 Lincoln Continental Mark IV.

Why the ‘73? “I just always wanted one,” Ivanell Kitchen said.

Under a financial planner’s guidance, they bought a Susanville tire store that had been managed for eight years by one of their five children and expect to purchase other businesses.

“We’re not going to go out and buy everything we see. . . . Everything that has been done has been absolutely necessary,” Ivanell Kitchen said.

They are somewhat puzzled by complaints from other big lottery winners about hounding reporters, money-seeking friends and relatives, and clamoring investors.

The Kitchens said nobody, except one relative, asked for money.

There were, however, the break-ins just after they won. Their home, garage, and car were ransacked in separate incidents but nothing was taken. “That’s the only bad thing that’s happened,” she said.

The Kitchens say they just don’t understand the winners who hide by moving and getting unlisted telephone numbers. “You can’t be afraid of people,” Tom Kitchen said. “Our friends still treat us the same.”

Chester resident Betsy Nelson, who edits the local weekly newspaper, said, “The whole town rooted when they went to the ‘Big Spin.’ Every TV was tuned in. Banners were erected for their return. I’m sure their name will be permanently affixed here to being millionaires. But they’re still as much a part of the community as they ever were.”

Ivanell Kitchen ranks 10th on the current top California lottery winners list, which is headed by Gordon Pivar, 53, of Oceanside, who won $17.9 million in lotto Dec. 6. The clothing salesman, who received an initial installment of $717,600, plans only gradual changes in his life.

Second on the list is Eve Spencer, 66, and her husband, Paul Donner Spencer, 64, of Saratoga, who won $15.2 million in the “Big Spin” contest on June 21.

Paul Spencer, who actually bought the ticket but let his wife spin the prize wheel to boost her morale in her battle with cancer, says the windfall has changed little about their lives in Saratoga, about 40 miles southeast of San Francisco.

He says they invest more, contribute to charities and have bought a new Jaguar. “But we were driving a Cadillac El Dorado. That’s not meant as a boast of any kind, but it gives you an idea. Our perspective has not changed a great deal . . . but quality has gone up a notch.”

Before their retirement, they published texts for the visually handicapped. They now devote themselves to their arts: He is a novelist and she is an enamel artist.

More for the Children

One difference, he said, is that they can give their two grown children and 10 grandchildren more now. “The things we had planned to do through our estate, we can now do during our lifetime.”

There were mixed effects from the publicity.

It “enabled us to reach people we had lost, so that was joy. Otherwise, I’m sure we’ve had what all people who’ve had a windfall run into--schemes and pleas for help from total strangers. All the con men who have underwater acreage in the South Pacific have tried to sell land to us.”

His wife had cancer surgery in September, 1985, and is now doing well, Spencer said. He admits a second reason for letting his wife spin: “She’s a hell of a lot luckier than I am. I think she rather convincingly proved that.”

Doctors will allow his wife to travel this spring, so they are planning trips to Japan and France.

Laura Graney, 34, of Pasadena, who won $5.2 million on Feb. 8, making her eighth on the current list of biggest winners, says her luck has given her more free time for the best things in life.

Quits Her Job

Graney has quit her job as a bookkeeper at the antique shops she and her husband own in Pasadena, 10 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

“I started taking a screen-writing class in June. I’m enjoying that immensely. . . . I’m spending my time with our four children too,” she said. “It’s also made me more secure because the kids can go to college. If there is an emergency, I know I won’t have to mortgage the house.”

Small things have changed too.

“I don’t pack coupons for groceries anymore. But I do still usually shop for clothes on sale. If there’s a fruit I want to give the whole family, I don’t wait for it to go on sale,” she said.

Changes haven’t all been positive.

“You learn to cope with people who think you have no problems anymore. Everybody seems to think money takes away all your problems,” Graney said. “We’re also learning a lot about investing money and how not to lose it.”