School ring lost in 1970 returned

ST. LOUIS, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- A class ring lost at Lake Wappapello, Mo., in 1970 has finally been returned to its owner after about 37 years.

Judy McMullin lost the high school ring while water skiing in 1970; less than a year later Shirley Essary of Poplar Bluff, Mo., found the ring while she was boating with her family, the Cape Giradeau Southeast Missourian reported.

"It was just something I put away and didn't think about," Essary said about the ring.

The ring sat unmoved until Essary recently cleaned out her jewelry box and rediscovered it.

"The first thing I thought was, 'I have to find the owner of that ring,'" she said.

Essary went to Don Schrieber, the publisher and co-owner of the Daily American Republic in Poplar Bluff, after finding out that he graduated from the same school that the ring represented.

Schrieber then took it upon himself to search for the ring's owner and eventually found her through her mother and many phone calls.

"I couldn't believe he'd found me," McMullin said. "When he told me where the ring was found, I knew it was mine."