The Observer, December 7, 2007
Volume XL, Issue 13
News You Can't Use
Wedding ring recovered 34 years after deadly tornado
A 1973 tornado in Blanchard, Okla., killed Elinda Hill and her newborn son and left her gold wedding ring hidden in the dirt.
Thirty-four years later, Eva McGrew spotted a shiny object in the dirt in her backyard. After bending to pick it up, McGrew realized that the object was a gold ring with a cluster of three small diamonds.
"That ring was laying there on top of the ground just sparkling," she said.
McGrew told her son-in-law about the find when he stopped by a few days later. "He said 'I bet I know who that belongs to' and he told me the story of the Hill family," she said. "This is where their trailer used to set."
In the tornado, Neal Hill's trailer was demolished. His 20-year-old wife and infant son were the only two people in Blanchard to die in the storm.
Hill later built a home a few blocks north of the incident, remarried ,and had a son. The couple is now divorced, but his son, Desty, 27, still lives nearby.
McGrew wanted to verify if the ring had been Elinda Hill's.
"Some people would call me a busybody, but I was bound and determined I was going to find out who that ring belonged to," she said.
After making a few preliminary phone calls, McGrew called Neal Hill, who was cautious initially.
"I didn't want somebody else's ring," he said.
But Hill went to McGrew's home just in case. "I laid that ring down on the table, and he just stared," McGrew said. "You'd never think after all these years it would turn up. I have no doubt that it was hers. I'm glad it's found its home."
"It feels like this is the final chapter," he said. "It's kind of a bittersweet experience. I was glad to get it back, but all the memories came rushing back."
Unpopulated, one-house Texas town sells for $3.8 million on eBay
An unidentified bidder in Italy recently purchased an unpopulated, one-house Texas town for $3.8 million on eBay.
No one permanently lives in the 13-acre town of Albert, which is about 60 miles north of San Antonio, but a tavern created from the frame of the town's original general store is open on weekends.
The purchase also includes a pavilion, an 85-year-old dance hall, a tractor shed, a three-bedroom house, as well as peach and pecan orchards.
Before town owner Bobby Cave signs the deed over to the high-bidder, he must be sure that the eBay bid is legitimate. Unlike the usual items bought through eBay, there are no contractual obligations when it comes to real estate.
"There's just not any way to insist that a guy from Italy write me a check for $3 million," said Cave, 47, an Austin real estate agent.
The reserve price on the town was $2.5 million. But even if the deal doesn't go through, Cave said he had roughly five serious prospective buyers.
Bridgeville, in northern California, was the first town ever put on the eBay auction block. The 83 acres that compose the town were twice sold through eBay – once in 2002 and again last year.
