Ramblin': Found class ring goes to daughter who lost it

‘I get the ring,” says an excited Barb Rice by telephone from Madison, Wis. “I'm going to have it sized to fit.”

Barb, 56, is talking about a girl's 1932 Washington High School class ring found by Ron Alberts of Tiffin a few years ago. He was using a metal detector along the beach of Lake Macbride when the water level had been lowered for maintenance.

The search for an heir to the ring began with Ron's call to me and the Dec. 16 column where I identified it by the year and its initials “ESJ.”

Charlene Hansen, a volunteer at the Genealogical Society of Linn County, and Beth Riggleman, a volunteer at the Carl & Mary Kohler History Center, found two girls with the initials “EJ” in the 1932 high school annual for Cedar Rapids Washington High School. Charlene then learned that Elizabeth Jackson's middle initial was “H” while Elizabeth Jacus' was “S.”

In my Dec. 28 column, I included information about “Betty” Jacus, who graduated from Coe College in 1937, married Clifford Rice in 1940 and worked as a proofreader at Stamats Publishing Co. from 1962 until she died March 15, 1987, at age 72.

Her obituary listed children Diane Fossum of Cupertino, Calif., Barbara Rice of Onalaska, Wis., and Steven Rice of Madison, Wis.

Wow! That column generated an avalanche of helpful e-mails and telephone calls - at least three dozen - from people who knew Betty or simply wanted to help.

One of the calls came from Betty Rice of Cedar Rapids, the sister-in-law of the deceased Betty Rice. That's right - they had the same first name and married brothers, Robert and Clifford.

“It was very confusing,” Betty laughed.

Betty, 90, still keeps in regular contact with the other Betty Rice's children and said, “Her kids will be thrilled to death.”

That was an understatement. I received a call from Steve Rice, a Madison, Wis., architect with his own firm for 20 years. He'd received two calls about the story.

“It's not clear in my mind,” admitted Steve, 63, a 1965 graduate of Washington High School. “I remember losing it swimming. I thought it was in Bever Park pool. It must have been at Macbride instead. When you're in trouble, your mind goes foggy.”

Steve recalls his mom giving him a ring to give to a high school sweetheart and losing it before working up the nerve to give it to her. Asked if he remembers the girl, Steve laughed.

“I've been married

44 years. I'm not going to remember anything.”

When I told Ron the story, he replied, “Wow, that's something.” He mailed the ring to Steve.

Then I received a voice mail from Barb Rice. “I'm the one who lost the ring at Lake Macbride.”

Uh-oh. Who really lost this ring?

“I did,” said Barb, thrilled that so many folks remembered her mom and tried to help.

Now 56, Barb is a 1971 graduate of Washington High School who prepares students in Madison to take GED exams in English and Spanish.

“My mom gave it to me as a teenager to wear and it slipped off my finger,” Barb says. “My mom wasn't happy.”

Make that Mom wasn't happy about her kids losing two rings. Because it turns out the ring Steve lost had belonged to their father, who died in 1959.

The siblings have chatted about the rings, and Steve has promised their mother's ring to Barb.

That is, as long as she promises not to wear it while swimming.