Sherry Hernandez (left) and her mother, Mary, speak to reporters after a news conference at the West Virginia Lottery Headquarters in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä on Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. It was announced at the event that Berkeley County resident Mary Hernandez was the winner of a million-dollar Powerball lottery ticket.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey (from left), Mary Hernandez, and her daughter, Sherry Hernandez, hold a display check during a news conference at the West Virginia Lottery Headquarters in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. It was announced at the event that Berkeley County resident Mary Hernandez was the winner of a million-dollar Powerball lottery ticket.
Sherry Hernandez (left) and her mother, Mary, speak to reporters after a news conference at the West Virginia Lottery Headquarters in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä on Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. It was announced at the event that Berkeley County resident Mary Hernandez was the winner of a million-dollar Powerball lottery ticket.
LAURA BILSON | Gazette-Mail
A Berkeley County woman whose computer-picked Powerball numbers matched five of six numbers on the winning $1.79 billion ticket drawn on Sept. 6 became one of 18 people to win $1 million in the national lottery.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey presented Mary Kathryn Hernandez, of Hedgesville, with an oversized, ceremonial $1 million check at West Virginia Lottery headquarters in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä on Monday for correctly picking all numbers except the Powerball number in the drawing.
On the day she bought the winning ticket, "I was taking Mom to pick up mail, but when we couldn't make the turn to the post office, I decided to stop [at the Hedgesville Road 7-Eleven store]" to turn around in the parking lot. While at the 7-Eleven, with the Powerball purse then surpassing the billion-dollar mark, "I decided to buy a Powerball ticket," she recalled during a news conference following the presentation.
A day or two later, after hearing news reports that a $1 million Powerball ticket had been sold in Hedgesville, Hernandez checked — and double-checked — her Powerball receipt and learned that she was the winner.Â
"I didn't tell anyone right away," said Hernandez, 61, who is a caregiver for her octogenarian mother, "but the first person I did tell was my daughter," Sherry Hernandez, who accompanied her mother on the trip to ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey (from left), Mary Hernandez, and her daughter, Sherry Hernandez, hold a display check during a news conference at the West Virginia Lottery Headquarters in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. It was announced at the event that Berkeley County resident Mary Hernandez was the winner of a million-dollar Powerball lottery ticket.
LAURA BILSON | Gazette-Mail
What will she spend it on?
Sherry Hernandez said her mother and an aunt will use a small portion of the winnings to vacation at Disney World and spend time at the beach.
Plans for the remainder of her Powerball purse remain up in the air, Mary Hernandez said.
"God provides ... but my head's still spinning," she said.Â
The new Powerball winner said she spends a few dollars each month on West Virginia Lottery games.
"l hit for $1,000 a long time ago," she said, but her Lottery winnings since then have generally been in the single- to double-digit range.
Since Jan. 1, 2019, when a change in state law allowed West Virginia Powerball and Mega Millions drawing winners who claimed prizes of $1 million or more to remain anonymous, Hernandez is only the third of 16 state million-dollar winners not to cloak their identity in anonymity. Three other $1 million jackpots were unclaimed during that period, including one from a ticket bought May 10 at Mardi Gras Casino in Nitro-Cross Lanes due to expire on Nov. 8.
Hernandez said she chose to be identified in order to let the public know that $1 million jackpots are claimed by real, everyday people like her.
"It's a win for everyone, including the state of West Virginia," Morrisey said. "Since 1986, $13.7 billion in Lottery funds have gone to the state" to help pay for projects such as Promise Scholarships, tourism promotion and senior and veteran programs, he said.
Morrisey added that the Hedgesville 7-Eleven will receive $10,000 for selling Hernandez's winning ticket.
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