MARQUETTE HEIGHTS — Peggy Thomas fulfilled a longstanding expectation when she won $1 million in an Illinois Lottery scratch-off game.

The Marquette Heights resident got the top prize in playing the lotto $300,000,000 Cash Spectacular game recently.

"I have always had a feeling that someday I would win a million dollars, so I really wasn't shocked when it happened," she said in a news release from the Illinois Lottery.

She took the one-time payment on her prize — $600,000, minus tax withholding — and promptly bought new cars for her two sons and her granddaughter, she said, before investing the remainder of her win.

Thomas, a lifelong Tazewell County resident, bought the $10 instant ticket at the Shell station at 700 S. Main St. in Creve Coeur. That facility receives a $10,000 bonus for selling the ticket. Hers is one of 35 such top prizes available in the game.