Powerball winners step forward

David Edwards said his jackpot win saved him from a "desperate" situation.

(CNN) -- A Minnesota mother, a couple from Maine and an unemployed ex-convict from Kentucky joined the exclusive club of Powerball winners Monday, each claiming their $41.5 million payout from Saturday's $295 million jackpot.

The first winner to face the media was an ex-convict who had turned his life around only to lose his job. He now has plans to help his family with part of his winnings.

"It's a poor man's dream," said David Edwards of Ashland, Kentucky, after lottery officials validated his ticket. He chose the lump sum payment of $41 million.

Edwards was convicted in 1981 of robbery in the first degree and sentenced to 10 years in jail, according to Kentucky corrections officials. He received an additional conviction of possession of a handgun by a convicted felon in 1991. He spent a total of 11 years in jail, spread out over 16 years. He was released on Oct. 1, 1997.

VIDEO David Edwards of Ashland, Kentucky, says he is one of at least four winners in the $295 million Powerball jackpot. WOWK's Michelle Kimbler reports (August 26) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) As lottery officials wait for the remaining Powerball winners to claim their prize, lotto fever is running wild. CNN's Patty Davis reports (August 27) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   MORE STORIES CNNfn: Alternative investment options for lottery players     RESOURCES Interactive: Winner profiles   In Focus: Financial planner: If you win Powerball   CNN Access: Powerball expert: 'I'd rather play blackjack'     Powerball odds If you buy 50 tickets a week, the odds are that you would win once every 30,000 years. If every Canadian's name were in a hat, you would be 2.5 times more likely to pick a particular name than to win the lottery. Biggest jackpots $363 million: 2 tickets, May 9, 2000; Big Game $295.7 million: 1 ticket, July 29, 1998; Powerball $197 million: 1 ticket, April 6, 1999; Big Game $194.5 million: 1 ticket, May 20, 1998; Powerball $151 million: 1 ticket, June 30, 1999; Powerball $150.2 million: 3 tickets, March 4, 2000; Powerball $130.6 million: 1 ticket, Nov. 29, 2000; Powerball $130 million: 2 tickets, Nov. 4, 2000; Millennium Millions

The no-longer poor man said he plans to buy a cream-colored Rolls-Royce Bentley convertible to replace his 1992 Buick Roadmaster that has "130,000 miles on it and a bad radiator."

A new pickup truck is on the list of items a Maine couple plans to buy with their share of the jackpot from a ticket they bought in New Hampshire.

Their attorney came forward Monday to identify the overwhelmed couple as Pat and Irwin Wales. She works at a bank; although he is disabled, he works several part-time jobs.

One day after Pat celebrated her 60th birthday, she crossed over the border to buy some lottery tickets, according to the lawyer. After tickets for two other games turned out to be winners (for a total of $25), she stayed up late Saturday to watch the Powerball drawing live on CNN.

Her attorney said when Pat went to tell her husband of 17 years that they were millionaires, the 70-year-old Irwin just said, "Un huh," and went back to sleep.

In Roseville, Minnesota, Sheryel Hanuman, a medical records clerk in her 40s with a husband and three young sons, said she was still "shocked" by winning the drawing.

She bought just five $1 tickets at a Cub Foods store Saturday when she stopped to buy a card on her way to a wedding -- only the fourth time she had ever played Powerball.

"It means at little more freedom. It means I'll have a more secure future," she said at a news conference at Minnesota Lottery headquarters. "It means I'll be able to help my family in ways I never even thought of prior to this."

There were four winning tickets sold for Saturday night's drawing. The outstanding ticket was sold in Delaware, where winners are allowed to remain anonymous. The winning numbers were 8, 17, 22, 42, and 47 and the Powerball number was 21.

If each ticket has one owner, each winner would have the option of taking $2.9 million a year for the next 25 years, or an immediate $41 million.

Last weekend's jackpot was just shy of the $295.7 million won by a group of Ohio factory workers in 1998. It ranks as the third largest lottery jackpot ever in the United States, behind the 1998 jackpot and $363 million Big Game prize won by two players in Illinois and Michigan last year.

Prayer and $7

Last week, Edwards' unemployment benefits were running out, he needed a back operation, his future mother-in-law had a serious illness and his daughter needed a computer for school.

At the time, "I only had three more unemployment checks left and I didn't have any medical insurance," Edwards said. "My back was against the wall."

That's when he decided to take $7, say a prayer and buy lottery tickets, one of which made him an multi-millionaire.

"The first thing I did was thank God," said Edwards, 46.

His fiancée joined him at the Kentucky Lottery Corporation news conference.

"I've checked the ticket 50 times and now they have it so I can't check it again, but I probably would if we still had it," said Shawna Maddux, 26, who is now planning a big wedding. The former waitress also told CNN she was "getting a Ferrari."

Edwards' ex-wife got married on Saturday, just hours before he became a multi-millionaire.

"Congratulations, honey," Edwards said. Edwards -- who hired an armed guard to protect his winning tickets after Saturday's drawing and traveled to Louisville for Monday's news conference with bodyguards -- conceded his life would change drastically after winning millions.

"I would gladly trade my old problems for these problems," said Edwards. "It's just up to me to make that positive change."

One reporter asked Edwards about his felony record

"I've made mistakes in my past and that's been a long time ago. I've paid for those mistakes and I've went on with my life and straightened my life out and I've been productive since then," he answered. "I can't go back and change my life, but I can do something positive about my future."

Edwards said some of his winnings would go to help the youth in his own community to help prevent others from making the same mistakes he did.

He also plans to set up a trust fund for his daughter's education, for his fiancée's three sons and for future generations of his family. He will also buy a house for his mother-in-law who suffers from lupus. He said he is getting advice from a tax accountant and other financial experts.

The owners of the Ashland Pump-N-Shop will receive $450,000 for selling the winning ticket, Kentucky Lottery spokeswoman Nichelle Lee said. In contrast, the Cumberland Farms in Rollinsford, New Hampshire, will get $30,000 for selling a winning ticket, according to Rick Wisler, executive director of the state's lottery.