winner stories

William Swanson

Game Name: POWERBALL
Purchased City: Merrillville
Date Won: 5/9/2011
Amount Won: $37,728,065

Scientist, native Hoosier wins $74 million in Powerball

April 2011 will go down as a big month for Powerball® players in Indiana who have won back-to-back jackpots totaling nearly $300 million.  A pair of welders from Clarksville, Ind. claimed the first jackpot of $221.7 million.  We now know who the holder of the $74 million ticket from the April 23 drawing is:  William “Bill” Swanson II of Houston, TX.   Swanson is a Hoosier by birth and a geoscientist by profession.  He was born in Gary and grew up in Merrillville, in Northwestern Indiana, approximately 40 miles southeast of Chicago. Swanson is a graduate of Indiana University. He was in Merrillville visiting his 81-year-old mother, Marilyn Swanson, for Easter when he purchased a quick-pick Powerball ticket that turned out to be worth $74 million. Swanson says he plans to spoil his mother who grew up in the Depression, the fifth of ten children, in a one bedroom home.   “She can live rest of her life exactly the way she wants,” said Bill Swanson.  “She will never have to go to a nursing home.”  The first item of business for Swanson is moving his mother near him in Houston.  He is buying her a house and a red Cadillac.  Click here to read more about Bill's story.