Sewer crews pull plenty of things out of a clogged line, and almost none of it is worth keeping. So when a crew in Sheffield, Alabama, spotted a grimy class ring in the debris, they could have tossed it. They didn’t. That ring started a search that took months and ended with a 79-year-old man slipping his high school ring back onto his finger.
- Workers clearing a clogged sewer main in Sheffield, Alabama, found a Burrell-Slater High School Class of 1965 ring with the initials OJM on it.
- A Facebook alumni post, an old photo found online and a city council connection led the searchers to Oscar James Meredith, now 79.
- Meredith had given the ring to his high school sweetheart, Anna. She later became his wife, but she lost the ring a few years before they married.
A Strange Find in the Debris
Two wastewater workers had just finished cleaning out a clogged sewer main in Sheffield when something odd caught their eye. Mixed in with the usual muck was an old class ring, covered in grime. They brought it to Junior Riner, an operator at the Sheffield Wastewater Plant.
The ring gave them a few solid clues. It carried the name Burrell-Slater High School, the year 1965 and three initials, OJM. That was a decent start. It was also a trail about six decades old.
Tracing a School That No Longer Exists
Riner started with the school. He learned that Burrell-Slater was a segregated school for Black students in Florence, Alabama, and that it closed in 1969 amid racial integration. Since the school itself was long gone, he went looking for the people who once walked its halls.
He found a Facebook group for Burrell-Slater alumni and posted about the ring. Then came the waiting. A few months went by with no answers.
That’s when Riner’s son-in-law jumped in. He searched online and found a photo of some Burrell-Slater graduates. One of the men in it was identified as Oscar James Meredith. O, J, M. The initials lined up.
Having a name is one thing. Finding the actual person is another. The son-in-law’s father serves on the city council, and he helped the group track down Meredith’s daughter, April Meredith Moore.
A Love Story Hidden in the Pipes
Moore took the question straight to her dad. Had he ever lost a class ring?
His answer turned a simple lost and found story into something sweeter. Meredith explained that he’d given the ring to his high school sweetheart, Anna. She later became his wife and Moore’s mother. Anna died a few years ago, but she had told him she lost the ring a few years before the couple married.
Riner then connected one more dot. The stretch of sewer where his crew found the ring sat right across the street from Anna’s childhood home. Most likely, the ring went down a sink drain there at some point and stayed hidden until a routine cleanup brought it back out.
Think about the odds for a second. A small ring slides down a drain decades ago and stays out of sight all that time. Then it turns up in the hands of a crew that cares enough to find its owner. Plenty of things had to go right.
Home Again and Still a Perfect Fit
Riner met with Meredith and handed him the ring in person. After all those years, it still fits on his finger.
Meredith said the ring brought back happy memories of his school days and of his relationship with Anna. Now it’s getting a new home in a display case in his house, where it should be a lot easier to keep track of.
How to Give a Lost Keepsake a Way Home
This story worked because a few ordinary people decided a stranger’s keepsake was worth their time. Nobody made them track down OJM. They did it anyway, one clue at a time.
If you ever come across a lost ring, wallet or old photo, the Sheffield crew’s approach is a good one to copy. Look closely for names, dates or initials. Check for school or alumni groups online, because those communities often remember names and faces. Ask friends and family to help, too. Riner’s search stalled for months until his son-in-law took a fresh look, and a local connection did the rest.
And if you own something you’d hate to lose, engrave your name or initials on it. That gives a future finder somewhere to start. Meredith’s ring shows how far three little letters can go.
