Kootenai man wins $200,000

Retirement had been good to Ralph Stuart of Kootenai. But on Friday last week, it got a little better.

The former blue cheese salad dressing manager for Litehouse, Inc. in Sandpoint claimed the final top prize on the Idaho Lottery's scratch game $200,000 Super Cashword.

His winning ticket was purchased at Babe's One Stop in Ponderay the day before.

"I actually bought two tickets. I played my first ticket and didn't win on it. But I just didn't feel right about leaving the next ticket in the dispenser for somebody else to play. So I bought it, too," described Stuart, who has the nickname Mr. Blue for his many years of work at Litehouse. "The second one turned out to be the big winner."

Stuart plans to pay down some bills and put the rest of his winnings toward his retirement.

After making the trip to Boise, Stuart left with his winning check and was heading to an undisclosed location for a vacation, preferably somewhere without smoke.

Stuart is traveling and unavailable for comment.