Retired Teacher Wins $200,000; Plans to Pay Off Farm

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5/10/2010 7:57:50 AM - ALBUQUERQUE – A retired school teacher from Grady plans to pay off the loan to her wheat farm after winning a $200,000 prize from the New Mexico Lottery.

Vandean “Bibbi” Isler learned she had a winning Powerball® ticket from the game’s May 1 drawing when a store clerk told her the prize was too large for the retailer to pay.

Isler called her husband, Jerry, from the store to tell him she thought she might have won $10,000. When she arrived home and checked her ticket numbers against winning numbers published in a newspaper, Isler realized the prize was worth nearly a quarter million dollars.

“It was amazing,” Isler recalled for lottery officials in Albuquerque on Friday. “It was unreal.”

Her husband cautioned restraint.

“I just kept saying ‘I don’t believe this,’” Jerry Isler said. “I told her not to spend any of it until we got the check.”

Isler’s quick-pick ticket matched the winning numbers of 16, 23, 25, 49 and 58 in the May 1 drawing. She missed the red Powerball of 20, which won have hit the night’s jackpot of $46.6 million.

This is Isler’s second experience as a lottery winner. Her first big win is as the grandparent of a student attending college on a Legislative Lottery Scholarship. Jadee Isler is a freshman at New Mexico State University studying communications.

Isler purchased her lucky ticket at Stansell’s Thriftway at 100 E. Manana No. 3 in Clovis. A lottery retailer since 1996, Stansell Thriftway has sold 11 other large prize-winning tickets ranging between $1,000 and $200,000.

Other recent lottery winners include Clovis residents Elizabeth Martinez, who won $4,000; William Sharp, $1,000; Peggy Gravel, $1,700; and Bobbye Bailey, $1,000.

Lottery Beneficiaries in Curry County

Since 1996, the lottery has raised $435 million for education and more than 61,000 students have attended college on Legislative Lottery Scholarships.

As of the Spring 2009 semester, 1,600 high school graduates and GED recipients from Curry County have received $4.9 million in Legislative Lottery Scholarships.