Known affectionately as the "lottery lady," Aggie Usedly was a household name to Detroit TV viewers.

Her manner was always friendly and unpretentious, and her smile was as warm as a million-dollar jackpot.

The veteran on-air personality has died at 79, according to a story posted Monday night on the station's ClickOnDetroit website. No date or reason for her death was given.

Usedly spent more than 30 years as a host for the Michigan Lottery. She's remembered locally for hosting the daily drawing segments seen in metro Detroit on WDIV-TV (Local 4) between "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!"

She also worked for nearly a decade with former WDIV meteorologist Chuck Gaidica on two weekly lottery shows, "Megabucks Giveaway" and "The Road to Riches." When contestants won, she beamed. When they didn't, she seemed nearly as disappointed as they were.

She made the job fun, according to Gaidica. "She was just always looking for a way to lighten up the crew. She was just beautiful inside and outside," he told ClickOnDetroit.

In 2012, viewers found out that Usedly and fellow lottery hosts Beth McLeod and Darryl Wood would no longer be giving the winning numbers on television. "They’re just going automated now. (We’re) being replaced by a robot," she was quoted as saying on CBS Detroit's website.

In 1999, Usedly spoke to the Free Press about her life and career, describing herself as "a hometown gal."

The daughter of Czechoslovakian immigrants, she grew up in Dearborn and told her mother as a little girl that she wanted to be "a moving star," her pronunciation of movie star.

Her real first name was Agnes, or Anezka in Czechoslovakian. She recalled how one night on the air she said, "Hi, I'm Agnes Usedly ..." and got three phone calls asking if she had forgotten her name.

Usedly started modeling at 17, spending more than 20 years showing off the cars at auto shows. She auditioned to be the CKLW traffic reporter but lost that job to local radio icon Jo-Jo Shutty-MacGregor.

She got the lottery job in 1977. The first night she was on TV, she recalled, she had a friend stay with her mother, who was ill and not expected to live long. When she got home, "I walked in the door and my mother looked at me and said, 'I told you you'd be a moving star!' "

Her mom died a week later.

Asked for her job title, she said, "Good question ... Lottery spokesperson? Lottery hostess? Most people just say 'the lottery lady.' That's what I get most of the time. 'Hi, lottery lady!' "

And her description of what it felt like to be the Detroit version of "Wheel of Fortune" letter turner Vanna White was pure Aggie.

"It's fun. I guess I'm a ham at heart. I don't mind being recognized, even if I don't have my makeup on. Most people are very, very nice and start telling me their lottery stories. They identify with me. I'm in their living room five or six nights a week. When we meet contestants on Friday, a lot of them just come up and start hugging me."

Usedly talked candidly about the time she made news in 1995 by reading the wrong number on the air for a multimillion-dollar lotto drawing. "I felt horrible," she said. "I got home and I had phone calls from every newspaper you can imagine. At 6:30 in the morning, I woke up and was talking on the phone to my sister in Florida and I'm stumbling into my kitchen to make coffee, and I look out the window and there's a man with a hand-held camera on his shoulder. Someone was pounding on my door. Channel 7 was parked in my driveway. They stayed there for three hours."

She also didn't mind discussing her continuing efforts to lose a few pounds and the plastic surgery she had done on her eyelids, choices spurred by her TV role.

Ultimately, she knew appearances weren't the most important thing in life. "Your body changes. I have a constant battle to try to maintain my weight. But I don't worry about it that much. I'm comfortable with who I am."

So were the multitudes of Detroit viewers who embraced her as the rare TV icon who felt more like a pal than a local star.

Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds: 313-222-6427 or jhinds@freepress.com.