81-year-old car enthusiast wins Colonel Crawford Corvette raffle

NORTH ROBINSON, OH (CRAWFORD COUNTY NOW)—An 81-year-old classic car lover is now the proud owner of another vintage vehicle, thanks to Lady Luck and the Colonel Crawford All-Sports Booster Club.

Jerry Lawrence of Beavercreek, Ohio, is the grand prize winner of the Booster Club’s annual Corvette raffle drawing.  His new ride?  A 1961 Corvette convertible.  Red and white four-speed.  Almost identical to the very first Vette he bought when he was 21 years old.

“I’m gonna’ enjoy it for the next dozen years or so as long as I’m capable,” said the retired pipefitter, who has spent decades collecting and restoring classic cars.  “At 81 years old, I ain’t jumping out of trees anymore.”

Lawrence said he has entered the contest for four years now.  “I always bought five chances, 100 dollars-worth all the time,” he said.  “This year being as it was a red and white car, I thought those don’t come around too often, so I decided to do $200 this year.”

He found out April 20 he was the winner of the Roman Red beauty.  “I woke up and said, ‘Today’s the day they draw.’  At 9:30 Saturday night they called and said congratulations and I just about flipped over.  I couldn’t talk.  My wife thought somebody had died.”

Lawrence bought his first Corvette, a 1959 soft top convertible, at a dealership in Dayton, Ohio.  He traded in a 1959 Pontiac for the fancy sports car, first manufactured by General Motors in 1953.  “I saw that Corvette one day and I couldn’t drive by it.  It was the fastest one they made.”

He’s also owned a 1981 Corvette, white with red interior, a 1946 Ford Deluxe Coupe, a ’65 Buick Riviera, and – his prized hotrod – a silver Ford Model A which he built from scratch in his garage workshop.  Back in the day, he was a member of the Road Knights Car Club in Dayton.

Lawrence and his wife, Eileen, still enjoy attending classic car shows around the state.  They haven’t wasted any time tooling around Greene County in their newest two-seater.  “We’re still pinching him because he still doesn’t believe it.  It was just a shock,” Eileen said.

The Boosters’ 23^rd annual raffle also paid dividends to Richard King, who won $500 and second place, and Richard Adamovich who won third place.  The club through its fund-raisers has donated more than $2 million for school projects, including an all-weather track and field house.