Mary Champaine

Thursday May 30, 2002 11:43 AM EDT

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For a few years Mary Champaine suffered an epic streak of misfortune: In April 1997 a stray bullet from warring Los Angeles gangs killed her 24-year-old stepson Al; a year later she lost her mother-in-law and father; in August 1999 the firm where she had worked as a personnel trainer folded; a month later her husband, Albert, 50, succumbed to cancer. Recalls Champaine, now 55, who found work as a Starbucks manager weeks after her husband's death: "I was too busy surviving to grieve over my losses."

Then, in October 2000, one of the 13 tickets Champaine had bought for herself and her employees in the California Super Lotto Plus won an $87 million pot. Although Champaine's windfall made her an overnight celebrity, she continued at her $32,000-a-year job until December 2000. "It just got crazy," she says. "I heard so many sales pitches, it made me tremble."

She kept her head, though: Her first purchases were a glass doorknob and a dimmer switch (she installed them herself) for her modest home in East L.A. Next year she plans to build a house for her daughter Michelle Brandon, 30, and two grandchildren. Champaine, who had heart surgery last July, now walks every day at dawn and takes belly-dancing lessons with a friend. "Money doesn't make you happy," Champaine says. "What makes me happy is that my granddaughters are going to be able to go to college."

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