Tustin Lotto Winners Can Buy Their Dreams

Every day for two weeks, on her way to and from work, Rita Ussery longingly looked at the new, red Lincoln Continental at the car dealership.

And every day she told her husband, Harvey, that she wanted it. He always shook his head, rolled his eyes, and said, “Yeah, sure.”

Now they can buy their dream car.

The Tustin couple found out Wednesday that they will split a $39.2-million Lotto jackpot with one other winner. Ownership of the second ticket, bought in Castro Valley, has not yet been revealed.

The Usserys’ $19.6-million purse is the third-biggest won in Orange County, lottery officials said. The odds of hitting six numbers out of six are 1 in 23 million.

In the California State Lottery office in Orange on Thursday, sitting under hot television lights and popping flashbulbs, the Usserys said one of their first purchases will be the Lincoln.

“I still can’t believe this,” said Harvey Ussery, 58. “I’m just tickled to death.”

The winning numbers--32, 31, 24, 7, 2 and 5--are a combination of his and his ex-wife’s birth dates, he said. “Of course, she didn’t know that,” he said, looking at his wife of 19 years with a smile.

“When I found out, I said, ‘Oh, really,’ ” Rita Ussery, 47, said. “But I don’t care because she’s not getting any.”

After a restless night in which neither slept, the first thing the Usserys did Thursday morning was quit their jobs. Rita Ussery has been working as a receptionist for L.H. Research Co. in Tustin. Harvey Ussery has been a heavy equipment operator for C.W. Poss of Anaheim for the past 2 1/2 years. He said the couple plan to travel and “enjoy life for a while.”

Since moving to Tustin from Arizona three years ago, they have bought at least five Lotto tickets twice a week and kept the same winning combinations on one ticket each time. They go to the same grocery store, Shirley’s Market on El Camino Real in Tustin, to buy their tickets.

“She’s a very nice and friendly lady, and she comes in here every Wednesday and Saturday, early morning,” said store owner Bob Nguyen, 46. “Every once in a while she would buy some candy, but she would always buy the tickets.”

The couple live in a one-bedroom trailer at Parque Santiago trailer park. As soon as they receive their first check, they plan to buy a mobile trailer and head upstate to visit Rita Ussery’s parents. Then they will travel around the United States, taking time out to go fishing, hunting and camping, Harvey Ussery said.

For the next 20 years, the couple will receive a yearly check of $786,000, after taxes. Besides traveling and setting up college trust funds for their 10 grandchildren, the Usserys said they haven’t made any plans.

All they wanted to do was “go home and relax and order dinner in,” Rita Ussery said, holding her hands up. “I’m never going to wash another dish again.”