Lost wedding ring found in garden after 10 years

WEST PLAINS, Mo. -- A southwest Missouri woman's garden has yielded something more valuable than beans and mustard greens.

Olene Lee found the wedding ring she lost 10 years ago -- a loss that was particularly difficult because her husband had died of emphysema a few months earlier.

"When I lost it, it seemed like part of me went with it," Lee said.

Lee lost the ring in the spring of 1993 while working in the garden at her farm near West Plains with gloves on. She felt a bug crawling around her finger, pulled the glove off quickly and shook her hand, flinging her ring off.

She began searching for it immediately, with no luck.

Her neighbor and relatives plowed and tilled the garden several times over the years, but the ring remained lost.

Then, on Aug. 13, Lee was stooped over, covering mustard green seeds and saw the ring lying on top of the ground.

She screamed: "That's my little ring!"

"You can't imagine how happy I was when I found it," she said. "To find that little bitty thing in that big old space."

The ring was about 30 feet from where it was lost. It didn't have a dent or scratch on it, Lee said.