Kramer family wins $1 million jackpot

For the second time in their life together, Peggy and Loran Kramer have won the lottery.

The first time came back in 2000, when the couple won $100,000 on a ticket they purchased at the co-op store. Last week, a ticket from Vince’s Corner made them millionaires.

“Peggy usually goes down on Sunday and buys for the whole week,” said Loran. “It’s part of our routine.”

June 13 was just another day for the Kramer family, until Peggy heard Loran from the other room after she read off the numbers from the Nebraska Lottery website.

“I was checking nelottery.com, and I saw that Vince’s Corner sold a winning ticket,” Peggy told the Nebraska Lottery. “Just then, my husband started yelling ‘We won! We won!’ in the next room. That’s when I knew we had that ticket.”

The couple and their son Kevin, who lives in Salt Lake City, always split the costs - and the winnings. This time, Kevin stood to gain quite a bit.

“I was able to call and tell him we won a million dollars,” said Loran. “It’ll make things easier for both of us.”

There are no plans for lavish vacations, trips around the world or mansion-like houses in the future of the Kramer family.

“We’re going to build a new back porch,” said Peggy. “Now it’ll just be a little bit bigger.”

The Kramer family has been buying Nebraska lottery tickets together for over five years now, and thanks to this, their future is more secure.

Kevin plans on using his share of the winnings to put together a college fund for his son, and setting up a retirement plan for the future.

Similarly, Peggy and Loran plan on their porch project, but other than that, they are saving for the future - a trait that clearly runs in the family.

The Kramers’ ticket from last Tuesday matched all five of the white ball numbers (6, 17, 34, 40, 48) - which comes out to a $250,000 prize.

However, because they chose to add on a $1 Megaplier option to the ticket, their winnings were multiplied by four, making them the fourth winner to get a $1 million prize since the Nebraska Lottery began offering the game in March 2010.

When asked about the potential winner last week, Henry Heeg, co-owner of Vince’s Corner was just hoping it was someone from the community.

“I just hope it’s someone local here in Kimball,” he said. “We have a lot of people come through here, so I don’t know who it is yet.”

However, now that the winner has been identified, the co-owner couldn’t be happier at finding out who bought the winning ticket.

“There are about four or five people who play regularly, Lor comes in all the time, and I’m really happy for him,” said Heeg.

While some people find themselves changed by money, this is not the case for the Kramers. Loran will still drive his 1995 pickup, and Peggy went back to work on Tuesday morning at Bemis downtown.

“I don’t feel any different than I did before I won,” said Loran. “I don’t want this to be a big deal.”