The Leaf Chronicle
— ANN WALLACE
annwallace@theleafchronicle.com

In their 30 years of marriage, Julie Tarrents has always had more of a knack for winning tickets than husband David.

But that changed Sunday when David's $100 ticket purchased online was drawn as the winner of the Nashville St. Jude Dream Home contest. 

The Clarksville couple won a new home valued at $650,000 in the Westhaven community of Franklin.

The Tarrentses use adjectives like "amazing" and "spectacular" to describe the 3,871-square-foot home with four bedrooms and 3½ baths.

"I'm still in shock and trying to get used to the idea," said Julie Tarrents on Monday from her branch manager's office at the US Bank branch on Fort Campbell Boulevard.

David is about four years away from retirement with Johnson Electric in Springfield, and the couple agrees a move to Franklin may be on the horizon.

"We're going to try to keep the house. We won't be commuting from Nashville to Clarksville, but once we know all the details, we just might move on down there," Julie Tarrents said.

The St. Jude Dream Home is a national fundraising program founded in 1991 to raise money for St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis. The program started in Middle Tennessee four years ago, said Katie Evans, marketing event representative for St. Jude.

The winner is responsible for taxes, but the house is his to keep or sell, Evans said.

The Tarrentses have supported St. Jude by purchasing tickets for several years.