Frances Witten says some people in her hometown of Laurinburg call her “the luckiest woman” they’ve ever seen. She earned the title on Nov. 28 when she had a $1 million day playing the lottery’s Ultimate Millions game.

After winning $300 on scratch-off tickets she bought at Nic’s Pic Kwik on Aberdeen Road, Witten was about to go home – when intuition kicked in.

“Something told me to go back and get that $30 ticket,” she said. Witten scratched it off in the store.

“I saw the ‘1’ and then I scratched the rest and it said ‘1 million,’” she recalled. Witten put the ticket in her pocketbook and went out to her car where she cried tears of joy.

A $1 million prize can be claimed as an annuity of $50,000 a year for 20 years or as a lump sum of $600,000. Witten chose the cash option, worth $415,509 after required state and federal withholdings.

Witten, who claimed her prize Tuesday, said she’ll use the money to fix up the house her mother left her and remodel her kitchen.

When Ultimate Millions began in September, it featured four top prizes of $10 million – the largest prize in an instant game in North Carolina history – and 18 $1 million prizes. It will also have three second-chance drawings for a $1 million prize. Three prizes of $10 million and 13 prizes of $1 million remain to be claimed.

Ticket sales made it possible for the lottery to raise more than half a billion dollars for the state last year. For details on how over $20 million in lottery funds have made a difference in Scotland County, click on the “Where the Money Goes” section of the lottery’s website.