By Liz Beavers
lbeavers@newstribune.info
Tribune Managing Editor
FOUNTAIN – A Fountain woman who has been married for 62 years and still wore the original wedding band her husband gave her is distraught today because that band of gold has come up missing.
Virginia “Dutch” Welton, married to Dick Welton since he returned home from the service in the ‘40s, is not sure where she may have lost the ring but process of elimination seems to point to a recent trip to Keyser Wal-Mart.
“My son took me up to the store to buy a new coffee pot,” she explained. “It was the only place I had been that day.”
That night, when she took her rings off and placed them on a ceramic ring holder – as has been her nighttime routine for many years - she says she didn’t notice whether her wedding band, which she wore on the same finger as a 25th anniversary ring, was there or not.
She did notice, however, that the ring was missing when she went to put her rings back on the next morning.
She immediately began looking for the lost ring.
“I got down on my knees and looked all over the house,” she said. “It’s just not here.”
The next step was to call Wal-Mart.
“They did tell me they had one ... but it was silver,” she said, the disappointment obvious in her voice. “Mine was gold, a plain gold band with rounded edges. It didn’t have a mark on it,” she said.
Welton is hoping that someone may have found it
(See RING Page 9)
and taken it with them, thinking they would try to find the owner.
“Everybody keeps telling me to say these prayers, and I’ve been doing that,” she said.
In addition to the meaning of the ring, it represents a lot of memories for Welton.
“Dick had just gotten back from the war in December 1945, when he asked me if I wanted to get married,” she said.
“He bought the ring at Evans Jewelry Store on Main Street in Keyser, and paid for it by the month.
“I’ve done nothing but cry since I lost it,” she said.
Anyone who may have any information on the whereabouts of the missing ring is asked to call the Mineral Daily News Tribune at (304) 788-3333.
