Mavis Wanczyk, a health centre worker from Massachusetts, was the sole winner of the US Powerball lottery, in which she won $758million (£592million).
But lottery officials said Mavis had opted to take a lump sum payment of £375million, so she will take home £262million after taxes.
When Mavis, 53, was asked yesterday if she was going back to the job where she has worked for 32 years, she said: “I called them and told them I will not be coming back.”
She said the first thing she was going to do was “just sit back and relax”.
Mavis, who has a 31-year-old daughter and a 26-year-old son, bought her winning ticket at a petrol station in Chicopee, near Boston.
She chose most of her numbers based on relatives’ birthdays – 6, 7, 16, 23 and 26 – and included her lucky number, 4.
Mavis told reporters that she learnt about her win as she was leaving work late at night with a colleague.
She said he joked that she might have won and she told him: “I know, it’s never going to be me,” before she pulled her numbers out.
She then said: “I have that… I have that… I have that’. He said: ‘Let me see that ticket. You just won.’”
Reflecting on her life-changing fortune, she said: “I’m a winner. I’m scared but I’ll be OK. I just want to be alone and figure out what I want.”
The biggest US Powerball jackpot was £1.25billion, although that was shared by three ticket holders in January 2016.
Mavis could have opted to have the full amount paid to her over a 30-year period. Instead about £94million will go the national government, while about £19million will go to the state of Massachusetts.
The owner of the store where Mavis bought her golden ticket said that he plans to donate to charity the £40,000 vendor’s prize that he will receive.