Mississippi man to get lost class ring after nearly 30 years
Published 6:44 am Saturday, May 8, 2021
A Philadelphia, Mississippi man is set to be reunited with a class ring he lost almost 30 years ago.
Jaimee Kelley said she found the ring back in 2013 while walking in her yard at her home on Hwy 19 in eastern Attala County near the Four Corners community. It was a Philadelphia High School ring from the class of 1990.
At the time, she posted it on Facebook, but no one claimed it, so she put it away, but recently came across it.
“Cleaning stuff out, I found it again and cleaned more dirt off of it and thought I could post it again and see where it could go,” said Kelley.
Kosciusko resident Kaitlyn Chunn saw the post and tagged the legendary Philadelphia football star Marcus Dupree, who her father used to coach, in the shared post.
“My dad keeps in touch with Marcus all the time, so I thought that surely he would know who to contact,” Chunn said.
Dupree gave her a name and eventually they located the ring’s owner, Jerremey Wilis.
Willis said that he lost the ring in the summer of 1991 during a wreck on Highway 19 between Kosciusko and Philadelphia, near the site of Kelley’s current day home.
“When the car finally stopped and landed, I got out and thought I was walking towards Philadelphia, but it turns out I was walking towards Kosciusko,” Willis said. “The wreck happened at about 2 a.m. and no one located me until about 10 a.m. that morning. It was a miracle I walked away at all.”
Somewhere in all of that commotion is when the ring was lost.
“What’s funny is that about three weeks ago, my mother showed me pictures she found from the wreck and we actually talked about me losing the ring.”
A friend texted him a picture of the ring on Facebook and told him to get in touch with Chunn.
Willis lives in Georgia now so Chunn took the ring to his mother in Philadelphia Thursday afternoon.
“It just brings back so many memories. To see the emblem and my name on it.”
Willis says he plans to be back in Philadelphia next weekend to get the ring.