Philly women gets back class of '42 ring

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PHILADELPHIA, March 20 (UPI) -- An 87-year-old Philadelphia woman said she never expected to ever see her high school class ring, which turned up in the estate of an old boyfriend.

Arletta Pardoe Bateman was reunited with her 1942 class ring after being tracked down by St. Hubert Catholic High School and the descendants of an old flame who died in Florida in 2001.

I never expected this," Arletta said after she slipped the ring on during a visit to St. Hubert this week.

The Philadelphia Inquirer said Arletta, a member of the first graduating class at St. Hubert, lost track of the ring after she gave it to her then-boyfriend John Dauplaise when she left Philadelphia for a wartime job in Baltimore.

The couple had lost touch with one another and Arletta married George Bateman in 1945.

Dauplaise kept the ring in a jewelry box the rest of his life. His children contacted St. Hubert officials who traced it to Arletta using the initials engraved on it.

The Inquirer noted Arletta has a great-granddaughter who is a senior at St. Hubert and has her own class ring.