Texaco Food Mart, located at 3649 Mount Vernon Road in Gainesville, sold the lucky top prize ticket. Kirby scratched the ticket at home.

"I was in disbelief," he said. "I looked at it several times and then told my wife. She was in shock too."

Kirby and his wife, Nancy, have two grown children and three grandchildren. Kirby is retired from the U.S. Army and currently works as an association executive.

"We’re nearing retirement age, so I think we’re going to start a little retirement travel fund for ourselves," he said.

Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corporation has returned more than $9.5 billion to the state of Georgia for education. All Georgia Lottery profits go to pay for specific educational programs including Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship Program and Georgia’s Prekindergarten Program. More than 1 million students have received HOPE, and more than 850,000 4-year-olds have attended the statewide, voluntary prekindergarten program.