Two wastewater workers had just cleaned a clogged sewer main when they spotted something unusual in the debris: a grimy class ring.
The ring had the words “Burrell-Slater High School” — a segregated school for Black students in Florence, Alabama, that closed in 1969 amid racial integration. The workers brought the ring to their colleague Junior Riner, an operator at Sheffield Wastewater Plant.
Riner took the gold ring, which was set with a ruby-colored stone and engraved with the school crest, and scrubbed it.
“I was able to get that it was the class of 1965,” said Riner, 54. “I cleaned the inside and saw there were initials there: OJM.”
Riner decided that February day that he would track down its owner. His own grandfather’s 1922 class ring had been stolen from his parents’ house, he said, and he knew how much its return would mean to his family.
“If I had lost my class ring, I would like if somebody found it to try to reach out and find me,” he said.
Sign up for The Optimist newsletter
Get inspiring stories delivered to your inbox every Sunday.
Riner posted on Burrell-Slater’s Facebook page, asking whether anyone knew a graduate with those initials. He messaged former students, but got nowhere.
Months later, Riner’s son-in-law joined the hunt. He was able to find a photo online identifying some members of the Class of 1965. There, they saw a photo of Oscar James Meredith.
“We matched the initials with Mr. Oscar,” Riner said.
A connection through Riner’s son-in-law’s father, a city council member, led them to find Meredith’s daughter, April Meredith Moore. She called her father with an unusual question: Had he ever lost a high school class ring?
Meredith, 79, who lives in Tuscumbia, about a 15-minute drive from Florence, was floored.
“It’s just amazing,” he said. “It brings back a whole lot of memories during that time.”
Meredith said he remembers getting the ring a few months before graduation, around his prom.
“Everything was so exciting, because you knew you were going to graduate,” Meredith said.
He said he is still in touch with several of his classmates, and they meet once a month for lunch or coffee.
“We’ve been doing that for a long time,” Meredith said.
The memory that stands out most, he said, is giving the ring to his late wife, Anna. They began dating shortly after he graduated from high school.
“Back then, you would give your steady girl the ring for her to wear,” he said. “That was the thing to do.”
Meredith said he was proud to see her wear it. But a few years later, before they married, Anna lost the ring.
“She felt bad about it, and she offered to get me another one,” Meredith recalled, explaining that he told her not to buy a new one because it wouldn’t have the same sentimental value.
They moved on. Meredith served four years of active duty in the military, and when he got out, the couple married in 1973. They had three daughters, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Anna died three years ago, after 50 years of marriage.
Meredith said he misses her every day, and hearing about the ring reminded him of their early days, and the life they built together.
“It brings all of that back into focus,” Meredith said.
He met up with Riner to get the ring on Sept. 22, and it was covered by WAFF, a local television station.
“It was like seeing a kid on Christmas morning,” Riner said. “He was just so excited.”
Meredith put it onto his finger — and it fit perfectly.
“I can still wear it and slide it right on,” he said. “It’s remarkable.”
Meredith said he was stunned someone spent several months trying to track him down, as many people would have kept the ring or tried to sell it.
“He took so much pain in trying to locate me,” Meredith said. “I’m just touched.”
After learning more of the backstory, Riner said he thinks he solved the mystery of how the ring ended up in the sewer system. The sewer main that workers had cleaned was across the street from Anna’s childhood home.
“Apparently, it went down the sink drain,” Riner said. “That’s what I think happened.”
In any case, Meredith said he is glad — and still shocked — to have a small vestige of his past back in his hands.
He brought it to a jeweler to be professionally cleaned, and he plans to keep it in a clear display box on his dresser.
“I don’t want to risk losing it again,” he said.
When Meredith looks at the ring now, he said, he will not only think of high school and Anna, but also of the stranger who spent months trying to return it.
“It shows there’s still some good people around,” he said.
The post A 1965 class ring surfaced in a sewer. Then came a remarkable search. appeared first on Washington Post.
