Circle Of The Ring: Daughter of 1977 EPCHS Grad To Get Mom's Lost Ring

EVERGREEN PARK, IL – The daughter of a former Evergreen Park Community High School student from the class of 1977 is getting a piece of mother back with the return of her mom’s class ring, that was found Texas 22 years ago.

Libby Turner, the daughter of Debra Thiesson, left a message on Patch very early Friday morning after being in touch with the finder: “This is my mother's ring who pass[ed] away 3 years ago. Seriously can’t believe it and in tears!!! I’ve emailed [Randy] Smith in hopes of retrieving it! Mr. Ben Daniel researched and found me on FB and I couldn’t be more grateful.”

A Texas man came upon the unusual find while looking for arrowheads in a lake during a drought. He came across an EPCHS class ring from 1977, one with the name "Debra Thiessen" inscribed on it.

Thiessen is a confirmed member of the EPCHS class of 1977, confirmed by the school registrar while looking through old transcripts. A photo of her was also found in the 1977 class yearbook.
Randy Smith, of Rockwall, Texas, recently reached out to the high school regarding the ring. He got a hold of the after talking to co-worker who found it while working with him at a car lot business.

Smith’s coworker – Mark Jones – who found the ring said he came across it 22 years ago in 2000 in the Waco bay section of Lake Tawakoni in the town of West Tawakoni, Texas, just outside the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The area underwent a drought that year, with lake levels about 12 feet lower than normal. Jones found several other items and many arrowheads, along with the class ring, he told Smith.
EPCH posted the find on its social media. Ben Daniel, a self-described “good old southern boy” from Jasper, Fla., whose hobby is reuniting found rings with their owners, was led to the late Debra Thiesson’s ring by searching for “class rings” on Facebook.

After finding Thiesson’s 2019 obituary online, Daniel reached out to her daughter via Facebook private messenger in the middle of the night, figuring he’d hear back in the morning. An hour later, Turner contacted Daniel.

“At first, she said it wasn’t her mom's ring. She thought she was being scammed,” said Daniel, who claims he has found the owners of 300 class rings. “I started out going to Ancestry.com, and, of course, there were multiple names listed.”

He eventually found Thiesson’s name on Classmates.com, then doubled back to Ancestry, where he found the obituary and reached out to her daughter.

“She asked me why I did this,” Daniel said, a retired high school science teacher. “I told her that I get some satisfaction out of it knowing that I helped somebody. By the end of the conversation, she was thanking me profusely. I told her this is why I do it.”

According to Debra’s obituary, who went by “Debbie,” she was born in Oklahoma. She lived with her grandparents while attending Evergreen Park Community High School. After graduating in 1977, she moved to Texas to rejoin her family. She married a man named Craig Brouckaert, and lived in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area. Debbie was the mother of seven children and grandmother of 15. She was once the owner/operator of Deb’s Heavenly Pampered Nail Salon. Debbie was an art and music enthusiast; she wrote poetry and music. She also sang and played numerous instruments including the piano, guitar, and drums. Debbie was known for her delicious cooking and baking, but most important, for her Christian faith.

EPCHS spokesman Tim Moran told Patch that Smith and Turner plan to meet up over the weekend to return the ring. To be continued.