Class ring discovered years later, miles away

After nearly 40 years of asking, Helen Ball finally got her wish.

In 1970, Ball lost her 1968 Magnet Cove High School class ring. She’d pretty much given up on it after so long. But every once in a while, Ball wondered what happened to the missing ring.

O ve r Th a n k s g iv i n g weekend, Ball read a newspaper story about someone else’s class ring lost in Lake Ouachita, then found two years later. Of course, the story turned her mind to her own missing heirloom.

“I sat down and thought, ‘Gosh, I wish I could find my class ring,’” said Ball, who now lives in Hot Springs.

Two days later, her wish was granted. The ring had resurfaced in a complete stranger’s home more than 500 miles away in Auburn, Ala.

The children of Mary Belcher found the ring while sorting through their mother’s old jewelry boxes with their dad, James Belcher. Mary Belcher died at age 86 in 2008.

Daughter Cindy Belcher Schell said she thinks of it as an early Christmas present for Ball.

“To know she’s had this little bit of joy, particularly at this time of year, that’s pretty powerful,” Schell said. “It just makes me feel warm and fuzzy all over.”

Initially, the ring - gold with an emerald set - stumped Schell. No one in her family had ever seen the ring before or could make sense of its mysterious “H.R.S.” inscription.

At first they thought the “R” might reference Mary Belcher’s maiden name, Riley. Perhaps the ring belonged to one of her family members?

But there was no Magnet Cove High in Alabama, where the family lived.

After some Internet research, Schell discovered Magnet Cove in Hot Spring County. She immediately sent an e-mail to Principal Brad Sullivan inquiring about the mysterious H.R.S. ring.

Sullivan was at a loss at first. He couldn’t find an H.R.S. in Magnet Cove’s 1968 yearbook. The school graduated only 35 students that year.

So he took the ring to special-education assistant Cristi Nitch. Her mother, Novilla Herrington Harper, graduated in Magnet Cove’s 1968 class.

Immediately, Harper knew the ring belonged to her childhood friend Helen Ruth Smoke, who is now Helen Ball.

Within an hour, Nitch called Ball and told her over the telephone that her longlost ring had been found.

At first, Ball didn’t believe it.

“I thought it was pretty strange,” she said. “I thought someone was pulling a prank on me.”

Ball received the ring in the mail Dec. 8.

It’s in great condition. It looks like no one has worn it in 40 years, she said.

“To have something missing for 40 years, you pretty much assume it’s gone,” Nitch said. “And then to have it reappear and know that it’s always been taken care of, that’s just special.”

A question remains, however.

How did the ring find its way to Mary Belcher’s jewelry box in Auburn?

Ball said she still remembers losing it in 1970.

It happened while she was washing her car. At some point, she looked down at her finger, and the ring was gone.

Ball searched for it but couldn’t find it. It must have gotten lost amid the gravel in her driveway, she said.

At some point, someone must have found it.

What happened next is only speculation.

In 1970, there was a Reynolds aluminum plant in Jones Mill, just west of Magnet Cove down Arkansas 51. There was another Reynolds plant in Scottsboro, Ala.

Sullivan said some workers used to transfer between the operations.

It could be that a Magnet Cove worker found the ring and took it along when his Reynolds job moved to Alabama, Sullivan said.

But how did Mary Belcher, who lived 200 miles away from Scottsboro, get hold of it?

The Belcher family used to have a large chicken farm and wholesale egg operation in Auburn, Schell said. The farm’s processing plant employed dozens of workers.

Perhaps whoever took the ring to Alabama lost it again somewhere on the farm and Mary Belcher found it, Schell said.

W h ateve r h a p p e n e d , Schell is glad the ring has returned to its rightful owner in time for Christmas.

“I’m very much a Christian person with the belief that God orchestrates our steps every day [as] we go. I just think his hand was in this,” Schell said. “It’s just an absolute blessing.”