Orange : Nurse Wins $1 Million in Lottery’s Big Spin

Barbara Grabill, a 41-year-old registered nurse, was planning a trip with her husband to the Orient anyway.

“Now we may stay a few days longer in Hong Kong,” Grabill said Saturday after winning $1 million in the California Lottery’s Big Spin in Sacramento.

“I guess I would say we’re ecstatic,” Grabill said by telephone from a cousin’s San Francisco home where she was celebrating with family and friends.

Grabill, who lives in Orange with her husband, Douglas, a house painter, said she “jumped around and screamed” after winning the $1 million, payable in annual installments of about $40,000 (after taxes) over 20 years.

Still, she said, it hadn’t really sunk in yet that the lottery ticket she had bought at a Von’s Market in Orange actually ended up worth $1 million.

A registered nurse who works for Sommerset Laboratories in Orange, Grabill said that neither she nor her husband have any intention of quitting their jobs.

“Heavens, no,” she said. “My husband is in business for himself and he enjoys his work. And I enjoy my work.”

Grabill is the second person from Orange County to win $1 million or more. Bonnie Snell of Huntington Beach won $3 million Jan. 11, 1986.