Class ring, lost for 50 years, is returned to family
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MORRIS CHAPEL, Tenn. — A missing class ring is in the hands of its owner’s family members after more than 50 years. A class of 1959 Morris Chapel High School ring was found in the summer of 1959 at the Fairgrounds swimming pool in Memphis. “He kept the ring at the swimming pool all summer hoping that the owner would come back to claim it,” Nancy Jones said. Jones’ uncle is the man who kept the ring to hopefully reunite with its owner one day. “He put it away, and every now and then he’d think ‘I’ve got to find the owner of this ring,'” Jones said. She said she visited her uncle in February and asked for her help in reuniting the ring to “CJC.” “CJC” was the only identifier other than the school and year on the ring. The initials are engraved inside the gold band. Jones said she turned to social media to start the ring reunion. She said this is how she found Hardin County commissioner Bobby Barnes. Barnes was a member of the last graduating class at Morris Chapel. He said he knew where to start searching for classmates with initials “CJC.” “I said, in the morning I will return to the community center and look at some of the pictures, and I’ll try to narrow this down,” Barnes said. The school was destroyed in 1976. All that’s left are a few class photos and the original hardwood flooring. Both are now part of the Morris Chapel Community Center. “The picture, that was the key right there,” Barnes said. Barnes got in touch with Carolyn Cornelius’ sister on a hunch. He said he called her and asked about the initials. “She said, ‘those are my sister’s initials,’ and I said, ‘Bingo!'” Barnes said. Carolyn died in the 1980s from lupus. On Wednesday, her brother Donald traveled from Savannah to Morris Chapel to accept the ring on her behalf. “This is sort of like one of those stories — it always happens to someone else,” he said. Donald suspected his sister lost the ring and kept it secret because of its value. He said he plans to send the ring to his niece, Janet, in Pennsylvania. “This thing’s got to make its final trip,” he said.
