Wife Selected Numbers for $1.1-Million Jackpot

The husband may have claimed the prize, but it was the wife who chose the five numbers that will earn Shirley Johnson, her husband and two children $1,146,330.

Shirley Johnson, who lives with her family in the San Marcos area, learned that she had five of the six numbers Sunday after purchasing her lottery ticket Saturday at the Allied Gardens Drug Fair on Waring Road. Her husband, Amos Johnson, went to collect on the prize Monday.

“Well, I said, ‘I got those numbers.’ My husband said, ‘Give me that.’ Then he took it and kept it,” Shirley Johnson said.

Five numbers was enough in last week’s contest because Johnson also picked the bonus number. No one picked all six of the announced numbers.

Shirley Johnson said she chose the numbers based on the birthdates of two of her sisters. The winning lottery numbers were 23, 3, 24, 2, 8 and 31, and the bonus number of 43.

She picked 2, 24 and 43 because her fourth oldest sister was born Feb. 24, 1943. She chose 8, 3 and 31 because her youngest sister was born Aug. 3, 1955. She said she chose 31 because that is her sister’s age.

Her Daddy Wants Her Back

“I haven’t really thought about it,” Shirley Johnson said after contacting her parents in Mississippi. “(My husband) thinks it’s his. My daddy told me to tell my husband to give me back (with the money).”

Shirley Johnson, who has been living with her husband in San Diego for 15 years along with their two children, Harold, 16, and Yvette, 14, said her family still has not decided what to do with its new riches. Amos Johnson is a postal worker who retired from the Marines. Shirley Johnson was the fifth San Diego County resident to win $1 million or more in the lottery. After 20% is deducted for federal income tax, the Johnsons will receive more than $45,000 a year for 20 years.

Federico S. Aguimatang Jr., 41, a retired chief petty officer also from San Diego, picked the correct six numbers in January and will receive $3.98 million. Renee Nawahine, a long-distance telephone operator from Encanto, chose the six winning numbers to take in her $8.1-million prize.

Two other San Diego County residents also have claimed millions of dollars in prizes. Last month, Michael Ciuzak, a self-employed electronics technician from Ramona, won $1 million in the state lottery’s Big Spin. Gordon Pivar, an Oceanside salesman who peddled shirts at swap meets, claimed $17.9 million, the biggest prize in California Lottery history.