Lotto Winner Will Keep His ’89 Toyota and His Perspective

Gordon and Joyce Jensen already were content. But things just got a whole lot more comfortable.

While shopping for a Thanksgiving Day turkey at Stater Bros. on Saturday, Gordon Jensen, 73, bought a lottery ticket that won $6.5 million, or $234,000 annually after taxes.

The Jensens, however, have no big plans for their jackpot.

The Fountain Valley couple will make some household renovations, send their two adult sons on vacations and maybe buy some rental property, they said. But they don’t plan to move or take shopping sprees.

“We have an ’89 Nissan Sentra and an ’89 Toyota Tercel, and we’re gonna keep them,” Gordon Jensen said. “I don’t believe in buying new cars--it’s a waste of money.”

Jensen, who owned a small record supply company before retiring when compact discs took over the market, said he has always been a frugal man.

“I grew up in the Depression. . . . I don’t plan on blasting it away,” he said.

He has played the lottery for 12 years, and until Monday, won $5 every now and then.

“I just played, waiting for lightning to strike,” he said.

When it did strike, he was half asleep, listening with one ear to the radio. First the announcer said the winners had bought tickets in Pasadena and Fountain Valley. Then the first two numbers read aloud sounded like his, Jensen said.

“I almost fell out of bed,” he said. “I ran into the kitchen and looked at the newspaper for the [full] number, and then I woke everyone up.”