Iowa Woman Wins $30,000 Lottery Prize in Memory of Late Mother

An eastern Iowa woman won it big on Thursday after buying a scratch-off ticket in memory of her late mother. Je Rita Whitman, 61, Anamosa, claimed the $30,000 winning prize off of a Crossword Scratch Game.

A media statement outlining the grand prize Thursday included statements about Whitman and how she won the lottery prize: Whitman bought her winning ticket at Casey’s, 23485 County Road E34 in Anamosa, where she stopped on her way in to work at the University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City.

After getting to work, she scratched the ticket and thought she’d won $100 until she scanned it with the Iowa Lottery mobile app and realized her prize was much larger.

In a media statement sent out on Thursday, Whitman shared her thoughts about the grand prize and what it means to her: “I only scratch because my mother used to love them,”

Whitman told officials Tuesday as she claimed her prize at the lottery’s Cedar Rapids regional office.

“She loved $3 Crosswords and she actually hit a $30,000 win herself.

It’s almost the anniversary of her death, one year, and so I bought that ticket because I was thinking of her, and we used to scratch them together and laugh about her winning that one time.

So I think she’s up there pulling strings for me.”

Whitman initially thought she just won $100 after scratching the ticket. But, she soon learned it was a much larger prize after scanning the ticket with the Iowa Lottery mobile app. “I just kept looking at it and I was like, ‘No way!’” she recalled with a laugh.

“I got so nervous about it, I had to call my husband and have him drive to Iowa City and pick up the ticket for me and take it home.

I had to work all night and I was afraid I was going to lose it or something.” In a media statement released on Thursday, Whitman said she was delighted to follow in the footsteps of her mother, Sonja Warren, who also won a $30,000 lottery from a Crossword' Scratch Game ticket back in 2015.