--- title: A 53-Year-Old Hospital Worker Won the Largest Single Powerball Prize in History description: Fifty-three-year-old Mavis Wanczyk, of Chicopee, Mass., claimed the $758.7 million Powerball jackpot Wednesday night. authors: - name: Alicia Adamczyk url: https://money.com/author/alicia-adamczyk/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 201 covers: - Personal Finance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/aliciaadamczyk former_staff: true published: '2017-08-24T18:39:51.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T06:40:15.000Z' section: Personal Finance tags: - Lottery - Powerball word_count: 138 canonical: https://money.com/a-53-year-old-hospital-worker-won-the-largest-single-powerball-prize-in-history/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Powerball Jackpot Winner Claims Prize](https://img.money.com/2017/08/170824-powerball-winner-mavis-wanczyk.jpg) *Winner of the $758.7 million Powerball jackpot Mavis L. Wanczyk, right, poses for a photo with Massachusetts State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg, left, in Braintree, Mass., Aug. 24, 2017.* The winner of the largest single lottery prize in U.S. history has already quit her day job, the [Associated Press](https://apnews.com/3cc0538059254092a01c9d8e35b9ebbd) reports. Fifty-three-year-old Mavis Wanczyk, a now-former hospital worker in Chicopee, Mass., claimed the Powerball jackpot, which climbed to a near-record $758.7 million Wednesday night. She reportedly took the lump sum, which netted her $336 million [after taxes](https://money.com/powerball-taxes-state/). Wanczyk told the AP she thought winning the lottery was "a pipe dream." But once she got over the initial shock and relaxed for a bit, she "called work to let them know she won’t be back." The largest ever jackpot was $1,586,400,000 in 2016. It was [split three ways,](https://money.com/what-was-the-biggest-powerball-jackpot-in-history/) with each of the winners (two couples and a woman) taking home $327.8 million. (Mavis, if you're reading this, Money has [some advice](https://money.com/powerball-lottery-jackpot/) on what to do with your windfall.) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/a-53-year-old-hospital-worker-won-the-largest-single-powerball-prize-in-history/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Personal Finance", "item": "https://money.com/personal-finance/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Making Money", "item": "https://money.com/making-money/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "A 53-Year-Old Hospital Worker Won the Largest Single Powerball Prize in History" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/a-53-year-old-hospital-worker-won-the-largest-single-powerball-prize-in-history/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/a-53-year-old-hospital-worker-won-the-largest-single-powerball-prize-in-history/", "name": "A 53-Year-Old Hospital Worker Won the Largest Single Powerball Prize in History", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2017-08-24T18:39:51.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/a-53-year-old-hospital-worker-won-the-largest-single-powerball-prize-in-history/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/a-53-year-old-hospital-worker-won-the-largest-single-powerball-prize-in-history/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T06:40:15.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "A 53-Year-Old Hospital Worker Won the Largest Single Powerball Prize in History", "articleSection": "Personal Finance", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2017/08/170824-powerball-winner-mavis-wanczyk.jpg", "width": 5472, "height": 3648, "caption": "170824-powerball-winner-mavis-wanczyk" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Alicia Adamczyk", "url": "https://money.com/author/alicia-adamczyk/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/alicia-adamczyk/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2016/01/alicia-headshot-2.jpg?quality=85&w=640&h=640&crop=1", "email": "alicia.adamczyk@moneymail.com", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/aliciaadamczyk" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2017-08-24T18:39:51.000Z", "description": "Fifty-three-year-old Mavis Wanczyk, of Chicopee, Mass., claimed the $758.7 million Powerball jackpot Wednesday night.", "abstract": "Fifty-three-year-old Mavis Wanczyk, of Chicopee, Mass., claimed the $758.7 million Powerball jackpot Wednesday night.", "@id": "https://money.com/a-53-year-old-hospital-worker-won-the-largest-single-powerball-prize-in-history/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-17T06:40:15.000Z", "wordCount": 138, "keywords": [ "Lottery", "Powerball" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Personal finance", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_finance" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Income", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income" ] } ] } ] } ```