SLIPPERY ROCK TWP — Mary Parton graduated in 1949 from Slippery Rock High School.

Her class ring still fits, though now on a different finger. Parton moved the ring to her index finger because it slips too freely over the conventional knuckle.

Parton can't be too careful. The ring slipped away once before.

It was missing for nearly 60 years until last week, when she was tracked down by Dave Leach, a stranger from Jamestown, Ky.

Leach found the ring in the mid-1950s at his father's gas station in Springfield, Ohio. It was lying on the restroom sink shortly after a group of young women stopped to fill up.

“We always kind of assumed one of them would notice it was missing,” Leach recalled. “We just kept it there in the cash register drawer, and they did not come back.”

In the end, Parton prospered from the oversight, since she was not among the travelers. She had lost the ring several years earlier, not knowing exactly when or where.

With the initials from her maiden named — Mary Evelyn Reddick — inscribed inside the band, Leach intended to someday track her down. But a series of life changes delayed his efforts.

Shortly after he found the ring, Leach got married. That event was followed by his father's death, then raising a family and a series of job-related moves.

“Wherever we have ever moved I've always had that ring in my possession with the idea that maybe someday there might be some chance of getting it back to the rightful owner,” he said.

Several times over the past five years, Leach tried contacting Slippery Rock High School, connecting with office workers who had no knowledge of how to help him.

In late September, Leach made a last-ditch effort to find the owner.

“(I knew) the chances of that happening were pretty slim,” Leach said. “That person would be 79 years old — something like that.”

But despite Leach's skepticism, his effort paid off. The school office worker suggested he call Dave Barnes, a recent past president of the Slippery Rock High School Alumni Association.

“Mr. Barnes really is the cog in the wheel,” Leach said, explaining he made contact with Barnes right away.

“He said, ‘I'm going over to the school right now and check the yearbooks.'”

By reading the caption in a class photo, Barnes identified M.E.R. as the former Mary Reddick — but he was unsure of her married name or where she might be living.

By word-of-mouth, Barnes soon learned her general whereabouts in Slippery Rock Township. He learned her married name and address from a friend who happened to be Parton's brother-inlaw and neighbor.

“I thought it would take longer, because most people move away from Slippery Rock,” said Barnes, who was knocking on her door the next morning.

“She opened the door and I was afraid she'd think I was a salesman. I said, ‘Were you Mary Evelyn Reddick?'

“That broke the ice,” Barnes added. “I explained to her, ‘I just talked to a man who has your class ring. He lives in Kentucky.'”

“It was a shock when he came to the door,” Parton mused. “I am immensely happy.”

Parton said the ring's long absence and return have increased its sentimental value. But its monetary value also has changed.

“My dad bought that ring for me. I was in the 11th grade,” she said. “It cost $14.”