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The romance of lost and found
Loving keepsake returns after nearly 50 years

Area residents Bob and Chris McCarty, who lost a keepsake nearly 50 years ago only to have it show up at the bottom of a Florida lake.

Area residents Bob and Chris McCarty, who lost a keepsake nearly 50 years ago only to have it show up at the bottom of a Florida lake.

Williams Police Department Officer Bob McCarty and his wife, Chris, are celebrating the surprise return of a romantic keepsake thought lost for good over 40 years ago.

"I really thought it must have been some kind of miracle," McCarty said. "It's just too amazing to believe."

This wonderful tale begins with the two ‹ Bob McCarty and Chris Short ‹ attending the same St. Petersburg High School in Florida. Chris was two years behind Bob.

Upon his graduation, McCarty joined the Air Force, which led to Russian language training in California.

While home on 30 day leave before heading for England, McCarty spotted Chris at the soda shop next to the school and asked who she was. He tracked her down later at the public library and located her there between the stacks. They dated for the next month before McCarty was shipped overseas.

The first gift Short ever gave McCarty was a gold and stainless Speidel identification bracelet ‹ popular at the time ‹ and mailed it to him for a Christmas present in 1956. He wore it through his military service and, upon his return, the two were married in 1959.

During Bob's tour of duty, his dad had introduced Chris to water skiing. Bob and Chris skied professionally for the next several years in the Lake Maggorie Gator Water Ski Club while Bob attended St. Petersburg Community College and the University of Florida. At some point while at the lake ‹ they believe it was in 1960 ‹ the bracelet was lost.

"We thought that's where we had lost it," McCarty said, explaining that one could see the bracelet in old photos up to a certain point.

Now, fast-forward to present-day.

Within the past several months, the city of St. Petersburg has been restoring Lake Maggorie by having the two feet of silt and mud on the bottom pumped out. During the operation, a female worker saw something flash by and retrieved it. It was the bracelet, forty years missing.

After recognizing the name on the front, the worker ‹ who wished to remain anonymous ‹ contacted the local newspaper.

It ended up in the hands of St. Petersburg Times reporter Jon Wilson who then researched the name on the front and the inscription on the inside which says, "With All My Love, Chris ‹12-25-56."

Wilson found their wedding pictures and write-up in the paper's archives and noted that one of the groomsmen was a current judge in St. Petersburg, Radford Smith. Wilson called him up and fortunately, Bob and Smith had maintained contact over the years.

Wilson subsequently called the McCartys and wrote a human interest article which appeared in the community section of the April 30 Times issue.

The call to the McCartys was a shock, because after so many years, the two had all but forgotten about the bracelet.

"You could have blown me over with a feather when they called," Chris admits. "I haven't quit being giddy ever since."

Bob said the bracelet was a bit tarnished, but credits the preservative quality of the lake's mud for keeping the item as intact as it was the day it was lost.

The bracelet has been polished and is back on Bob's wrist.

Bob and Chris have two daughters and six grandchildren, all in the Phoenix area. Bob is an officer with WPD and during the school year serves as the school resource officer for the Williams Unified School District. Chris is a member of the Ponderosa Fire District Auxiliary and has recently joined the Coconino County CERT (Community Emergency Response Team). The two are members of the Williams First Southern Baptist Church where they both engage in singing solos and duets.

(Editor's note: Bob McCarty contributed to this article.)


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