A woman who found a 1997 Zachary High School class ring at Daisy State Park was able to return the ring to its owner, Zachary native Trisha Bailey, more than 20 years after it was lost.
Sometime between her Junior and Senior year (1996-1997), Trisha was vacationing with her lifelong friend Dana Sanchez and her family at Daisy State Park in Arkansas. The pair were knee-boarding on Lake Greeson when suddenly, Trisha realized her ring was missing. They spent the evening snorkeling and searching the area determined to find Trisha’s new class ring, but to no avail.
“Who knows how deep the water was in that area, but we didn’t have any luck,” said Trisha.
For more than 20 years, Trisha counted the ring as lost. Then, in December 2020, lifelong metal detectors Launa Pinson-Simmons reached out to the Class of 1997 Alumni Facebook Page Admin Tramekia Butler in search of a 1997 graduate named Patricia Davis.
“Tramekia reached out to me and Dana and then sent me her info and I contacted [Launa] on Facebook,” explained Trisha.
Trisha described the green ring with a Z in the middle, Bronco Belles dancer on one side, cross country/track on the other and a signature engraved on the inside, and soon it was in the mail on its way back to Trisha.
According to Launa, Lake Greeson was pulled down, exposing more of the shoreline in late 2020. State parks typically do not allow metal detectors, but after receiving a special permit, Launa had been hunting the newly exposed shoreline every day for two months. On that day in December, she had only been hunting about five minutes when she got a good signal and began digging.
“She said it was probably laying very near where I originally lost it,” said Trisha. “That gold is heavy and tends to stay close to where it lands.”
Metal detectorist Launa said Trisha’s was the seventh class ring she had found over the years, and she has successfully returned all but one – the ring of a 1939 graduate without enough identifying information on it to begin a search.
