1988 Cuero class ring finally goes home

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  Publisher Dave Shabaz hands the lost class ring of Culberson Williams to his niece, Jasmine Mathis. Williams, who has leukemia, lives in Austin and his family will visit him with the ring. STAFF PHOTO

  Publisher Dave Shabaz hands the lost class ring of Culberson Williams to his niece, Jasmine Mathis. Williams, who has leukemia, lives in Austin and his family will visit him with the ring. STAFF PHOTO

• 1988 Cuero class ring finally goes home

  1988 Cuero class ring finally goes home
• 

  1988 Cuero class ring finally goes home

  1988 Cuero class ring finally goes home

When I first arrived here in DeWitt County in the middle of August of 2023, I noticed that in what was our version of a “lost and found” box, there were two class rings. One was a Cuero High School ring, and one was a military ring. I asked my employees at the time if they knew anything about them or tried to find the owners and they all said, “No, those have

Now, was I a bit annoyed that no one seemed to care about finding out who they belonged to? Sure, I was, but being brand new to town and the newspaper, I just decided to make it my mission to find the owners, which hasn’t been easy.

So late last year, I put something generic on our Facebook pages in Cuero and Yorktown but didn’t get any response. And what I mean by generic is, “lost class ring and military ring.” I didn’t put any detail in my message, hoping that more than a few people might contact me, which they didn’t. I’ve contacted local veterans’ clubs about the military ring and went to the high school about the class ring, but no one seemed able to help me find the owners. So, I recently decided to put the class ring on Facebook again, but this time I put more details about the ring and wouldn’t you know it, we found the owner. Well, we found the owner’s family.

The ring belongs to Culberson Williams from the Cuero Class of 1988. Since the ring says, “Culberson,” on one side, I assumed it was the person’s last name. But come to find out, it was his first name and people started responding. Then I received an email from his niece. She is the daughter of Diane Williams, who still lives here in Cuero. Culberson now lives in the Austin area and she will make sure he gets his ring back.

I still want to find the owner of the military ring. Operation Enduring Freedom is what it says on the ring. It has other personal things on the ring, but I don’t want to disclose them at this time. I’d like the real owner to be able to describe the ring to me, so I know it’s going to the real owner.

Editor’s Note: Dave is moving to Carlsbad, New Mexico, to be publisher of the Carlsbad Current Argus. We thank him for taking the helm this year and wish him well at his new paper. We will keep the military ring safe until its owner can be found.