Oran woman wins $10,000 in lottery

ORAN, Mo. -- Tammy Burks of Oran is accustomed to tending to others. She works as a caregiver, has three children and three grandchildren. On Dec. 5, the 46-year-old realized that she was being taken care of with a $10,000 Missouri Lottery prize.

"I was at work, and I asked my son if he would go to Chaffee to get me some tickets," she said.

The first-time lottery winner wasn't sure what to think when she uncovered the $10,000 prize on the 100 Million Dollar Blockbuster ticket her son had bought at Chaffee Food Giant.

"I took my glasses off and rubbed my eyes, and I looked at it again with my glasses on," she said.

Fighting back "happy tears," she contacted her son.

"I called him on the phone, and told him that I was screaming and jumping up in the air," she said. "The ticket is on the table, and he's going, 'Calm down. You didn't win, mom.'"

Her son's first question was, "Do you have your glasses on?"

Burks asked her son to stop by where she was working to look at the ticket. After careful inspection, he changed his tune and told his mother she had won.

When Burks returned home after her shift, she placed the ticket in the safest place she could think of -- underneath her granddaughter's crib mattress.

"It's overwhelming," she said. "I don't know what I'm going to do now. I want a car, and I want to help my family, and I want to get something special for the lady I take care of."

She said the prize will allow her family to have "a very good Christmas."