Stories abound about how class rings are found by metal-detector enthusiasts in old high school football stadiums only to be returned to their rightful owners 15, 20 or 30 years after they were lost. But every once in a while, we hear an extraordinary tale of a class ring lost and found.

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College archivist Charles Sullivan recently came across such a fantastic story…a story of a high school class ring being lost at Ship Island more than 70 years ago and being found, only to be lost and found and lost and found again.

This particular class ring, belonging to 1943 Perkinston Agricultural High School graduate Audrey Rita Mendez, was presented to her family in a special ceremony at MGCCC’s Perkinston Campus archives on Saturday, October 17. Her family members, traveling from Texas for the ceremony, came also to visit their mother’s high school and junior college and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where she grew up. They also came to hear the story of how their mother’s class ring was lost and found. And it is an extraordinary tale, some of which is pure speculation and other parts that are fact. For instance, it is believed that Audrey lost her class ring at Ship Island during a senior trip, a tradition at PAHS. But she never mentioned the ring’s loss to anyone, so that is supposition and not fact. Other things are known, like where the ring was found, and much about Audrey’s life at both PAHS and Perkinston Junior College.

Audrey’s daughter-in-law, Terry Covington, said they had visited the campus in 2000 when Audrey was still alive. “She remembered everything about where things were – her old dorm, Harrison Hall, where the president lived and where she took classes. She said it was the best years of her life.” Terry and her husband, Rick Covington, made a video of the visit, which they have shared with Sullivan. In return, Sullivan shared a video of their mom while she was a student at the campus in 1942. The family stood in the Archives, enthralled, watching the video of their mother as a teenager.

“This has been an incredible journey for all of us,” David Covington, another of Audrey’s sons said. “To think that her ring has been returned after more than 70 years. It is almost miraculous!” His sister, Deena Kocian, agreed with her brother. Trying on the class ring, Kocian noted, “The ring looks almost brand new. It is just unbelievable that it stayed in the sand through so many storms and for so many years.”

The story of the ring’s finding has twists in itself. First found by Peter Skrmetta, a member of the Skrmetta family, which owns Ship Island Excursions, the ring ended up with Peter’s mother, Beth Skrmetta. She kept it in her house for years, with the intention of returning it to someone. In August 2005, her house was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.  While sifting through the debris, she found the ring.

“I couldn’t believe that I found that lost ring again,” she said. “It was like it wanted to be found.” Intending to do something with it, she put the ring in a safe place and forgot about it until recently, when, while going through her things again, she found it.  “I knew then that I needed to do something with it. That’s when I contacted my next-door neighbor for help. He contacted Sullivan and, well, the rest is history.”

The ring, which has the PAHS emblem in the center and 1943 on the sides, also bears the monogram “ARM” on the inside of the band. Sullivan, upon receipt of the ring’s information, went immediately to the list of 1943 PAHS graduates. Said Sullivan, “We have excellent records at MGCCC, and I knew who the ring belonged to within 10 minutes. Only one person in the list had the initials ARM, and that was Audrey Rita Mendez. From there I went to the yearbooks and other documents, and I found that she had been very active during her time at Perkinston. For instance, we know that she attended PAHS in 1942 and 1943 and during the summer of 1943. We know that she graduated from the PAHS on August 31, 1943. We know she would have gotten her class ring sometime before her graduation.  And we know that while at PAHS, her nickname was ‘Jimmie,’ and she was a member of the Glee Club, the Y.W.C.A. and the Newman Club. Lastly, we have records showing she entered Perkinston Junior College on September 7, 1943, as a freshman, and graduated May 23, 1945.”

Seeking information about her life in the years after she attended Perkinston, Sullivan located the obituary following her death on March 14, 2011. Said Sullivan, “From that information, I learned that she married Robert Covington after WWII, and we were able to contact her family.”

And in an odd twist of fate, the ring has now been returned to its original home on the grounds of MGCCC’s Perkinston Campus. The family, deciding that it was a bigger story than just theirs, donated the ring to the college’s Archives. Sullivan has assured them that it will hold a place of honor in the many exhibits there.

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