Woman reunited with ring 37 years later
Published: February 5, 2007
A class ring lost while a woman was water-skiing more than three decades ago recently was returned, and a newspaper publisher flew into town to reunite it with its rightful owner.
Judy McMullin’s Cape Girardeau Central High School class ring has had quite an adventure. She lost the ring she’d only had a month while water-skiing with friends at Lake Wappapello in 1970.
A year later, Shirley Essary of Poplar Bluff discovered the ring at the lake’s edge while boating with her family. She recently realized she still had the ring while cleaning out her jewelry box, and wanted to return it to its owner.
Essary’s husband, Pat, approached the publisher and co-owner of the Daily American Republic in Poplar Bluff, Don Schrieber, about the ring. Schrieber grew up in Cape Girardeau about 80 miles away and went to the same high school that the missing ring was from; he began to search for the ring’s owner.
“What piqued my interest was that I graduated in ‘71,” Schrieber said. “Even though she was a year older, I felt compelled to return it to my classmate.”
Schrieber found only one set of initials matching the ring’s inscription, J.A.F., in the 1970 class yearbook. Based on that girl’s last name, he started calling every Fee in the phone book.
Schrieber reached Judy’s mother, who gave him her daughter’s phone number in nearby Chaffee and told Schrieber her child’s married name is McMullin.
“I couldn’t believe he’d found me,” McMullin said. “When he told me where the ring was found, I knew it was mine.”
On Saturday, Schrieber flew to Cape Girardeau to return the ring to McMullin.
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