WANT TO LIVE OR EVEN SURVIVE - DON'T WIN BIG!

Mega Millions winner dies at 43

By GINA DAMRON
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

December 26, 2006

Ralph Stebbins and his wife, Mary, had big plans for the $208-million Mega Millions lottery jackpot they won in April 2005.

Buy a farm. Buy a cow.

But after less than a year of incredible wealth -- taking home a $124.7-million lump-sum payment -- Ralph Stebbins has died at age 43.

Robert Kolt, a spokesman for the family, said Tuesday that Stebbins died Saturday of heart failure at his home -- the location of which he would not reveal to protect the family's privacy. Kolt said that, to his knowledge, Stebbins did not have a history of heart problems and hadn't been ill.

"He seemed healthy and he was a very active guy," Kolt said. "I think everybody was surprised."

Stebbins -- who before becoming a multimillionaire had worked for a well-digging company in the Port Huron area, -- found himself in legal trouble earlier this month when he was arrested after a confrontation with the boyfriend of his daughter Karin, Kolt said.

The charges are domestic, but the details are unclear.

"Ralph loved his kids," Kolt said. "He was a very protective father."

The Stebbinses were married 23 years. They have three children -- Candice, 22, Karin, 19, and Todd, 17.

Kolt said the Stebbinses used their fortune to help family members.
They also got the farm they had wanted.

But they never bought that cow.