After buying a $25 scratch-off, Cynthia Brown of Franklin couldn’t stop shaking when she realized she won a $100,000 prize.

“I couldn’t even write my name on the ticket I was shaking so much,” she said.

Brown, 61, bought her lucky Extreme Cash ticket from Dowdle Mountain Pit Stop on Dowdle Mountain Road in Franklin. She said she couldn’t believe it when she saw the winning number on her scratch-off.

“It was the No. 13,” she said. “I was floored.”

Brown said she lives in a small town and word of her big win traveled fast.

“Trust me the whole town knew by the next morning,” she laughed.

Brown arrived at lottery headquarters Monday to collect her prize and, after required state and federal tax withholdings, took home $71,257.

Ticket sales from scratch-offs make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $2.5 million a day on average for education. For details on how $2.1 million raised by the lottery made a difference in Macon County last year, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section.