Luck Can Change - For the Better or Worse

I don't know how to label Willie Himes, who was both lucky and unlucky.  His life ended too soon, and one of his survivors was represented by a friend of mine who shared an office with me.

Willie had a good union job at Scullin Steel in St. Louis.  Unfortunately, the plant closed in 1980 and he was unemployed until he settled for a job as a custodian at a public school.  "We went without for a while," he told a St. Louis Post Dispatch reporter when he won the lottery in 1984, snagging a gross win of $2.4 million (equivalent to about $6.4 million today).  He elected to take the 20 years' annuity in annual slugs of $140k.  He said that he and his wife Verneeda had been buying one ticket each for many years.

He wanted to pay off his house, buy a four-family building to rent and travel to Paris.  Other than that, he said he did not want to change his life much.  He no natural children of his own, but Verneeda had many adult children.  

Willie was lucky to get a job at Scullin, unlucky to lose the job and lucky to win the lottery.  Unfortunately, the pattern repeated and he died in 1986 after getting just three payments. 

But that's not the end of the story.  His wife Verneeda filed for Social Security as a surviving spouse and to her surprise, her claim was denied.  Why?  Because one "Hazel Himes" claimed to be Willie's wife and said they had married in 1949!  This was true.   

Verneeda said she had heard of Hazel from Willie, but that Willie told her they had divorced well before Verneeda and Willie's marriage in 1973.  Verneeda was quoted as saying, "I guess they were married for about ten minutes." 

That's a problem because a married person can't marry a second time without being divorced.  It's called bigamy, and the second "marriage" is not simply voidable.  In Missouri it's legally void.  That's big trouble for someone who thought she would get Social Security benefits.

But an even bigger problem arose.  The lottery ticket had been cashed in Willie's name, and the Lottery Commission insisted that it could only be paid to Willie's estate.  Hazel, smelling a big payoff, filed a probate estate as a surviving spouse and sole heir. 

Fortunately, through some legal proceeding that I can't find, my colleague convinced someone (a judge or mediator or arbitrator) that the ticket, although cashed in Willie's name, was half Verneeda's.  At least, she got half.  Verneeda died in 2012. 

So if you win the lottery, seek legal advice before cashing in the ticket and remember that luck can change.