A World War II veteran and his family stepped forward Monday to claim a Powerball jackpot worth more than a quarter-billion dollars, one of the largest single-ticket lottery prizes in U.S. history.

Jim Wilson II, 84, and his wife, Shirley, 79, claimed the winning prize from last Wednesday's drawing, along with their three sons.

"I was absolutely astonished," said Jim Wilson, a retired electrician who served in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division in Africa and Europe, at an afternoon news conference. "I couldn't believe it, and still don't."

He bought the winning ticket — with the numbers 9-19-29-42-53 and a Powerball number of 17 — at a grocery store in St. Louis County. The store will get $50,000.

When the Wilsons learned they had won, they got professional financial advice before claiming the prize.

Jim Wilson II has the option of receiving $254 million in 30 payments over 29 years, or accepting a lump-sum payment worth $120 million before taxes.

The couple said they will share the money with their sons. The St. Louis family has been buying family Powerball tickets for years with the understanding that they'd share any winnings, the Missouri Lottery said.

Two sons — Bill, 54, and Jim III, 59 — lost their jobs in the past year, though Bill Wilson has found a new one. Another son, Terry, 53, said he hasn't had a vacation in 30 years and will probably go to Australia.

The couple also said they will set aside money for their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The Wilsons' prize is the 10th-largest single-ticket lottery prize in world history, with all 10 coming from the United States, Missouri Lottery officials said. The largest was a $365 million prize won by eight Nebraska meatpacking plant workers in February 2006.

Former Hollywood wild child Drew Barrymore likes nothing more than ripping off her clothes and running naked through the fields -- although apparently only in Ireland, according to a recent interview.

 

I'll drive in Ireland and park my car and run out into the field and rip all my clothes off and just run in the wheat fields naked," the actress says in an interview with Parade magazine due to appear Sunday.

The star also recalls another naked incident, when she flashed talk show host David Letterman live on network television in 1995.

"I'm so glad I was so free at one point in my life," she says.

She adds that she is aware the idea might raise a few eyebrows.

"I think it alarms people, because I'm so responsible now that when I do do it, it's almost surprising rather than, 'Oh, that's just her doing her thing again.'"

After appearing in Steven Spielberg's box office hit "E.T." at the age of seven, Barrymore dabbled in drugs and alcohol before she was even a teenager.

She returned to cinema after surviving a troubled adolescence and beating her addictions, but she maintained her bad-girl image, posing for Playboy magazine and appearing nude in several films.

Phone psychics are so 20th century now that one seer has ushered in the new age of instant messaging intuitives.

Justine Kenzer, a Los Angeles-based psychic for 16 years, is changing with the times by offering readings via instant messaging.

Kenzer says when she started e-mail readings through her website psychicgirl.com in 1999, explaining, "I wanted to do it because there's a different consciousness online."

But with instant messaging, she says her clients can ask follow up questions right away, and she can "read someone's energy" over IMs so there's no loss of psychic connection despite never seeing or hearing her clients.

If things keep going the way they are, Kenzer's crystal ball will soon be wireless.

She says she's looking into delivering readings via cell phone text messages.