Stephen F. Austin State University

After being lost for more than two decades, a class ring from Stephen F. Austin University was returned to the original owner, a 95-year-old man, Tuesday evening after two young brothers found it buried at a local church.

Luke Lytle, 12, and his brother Sam, 8, bought their new metal detector Monday afternoon and decided to try it out that day on a nearby playground at Ryan Chapel Church in Diboll.

Soon enough, buried six inches under the earth, Luke found a golden ring dating back to the 1930s.

"When I first saw it I thought 'oh boy, Cash for Gold here I come' but soon I heard the Lord telling me that I needed to return the ring to its owner," Lytle said.

With a little extra digging on the Internet, the boys soon discovered the initials inside the ring belonged to Franklin Weeks, of Lufkin.

On Tuesday they were at his house to return what was rightfully his.

"I've been looking for that ring a long time," Weeks said. "I can't believe you boys found it."

As far as he can recall, sometime in the 80s, Weeks was helping the church put in new playground equipment at the spot where the ring was found.

Weeks reckons that he lost it sometime then, but said he hasn't even thought about it since, thinking it was lost forever.

To show his appreciation, Weeks rewarded the boys with $20, which he was hard pressed to convince the modest young men to accept.

"We're so proud of them," said Leo Lytle, the boys' father. "Hopefully this will inspire other kids to do the right thing."

Weeks, who graduated from SFA in 1937, reminisced of the days when he attended the school, which the was then a state teacher's college.

"Times were rough then, it was hard to find a job so I decided to stay in school," Weeks said.

He graduated with a degree in English, History and Agriculture, before working for his uncle for a dollar a day, sun up to sun down.

Weeks also told the boys about the history of Ryan Chapel Church, which he has been attending since 1916.

"Before there was a Diboll, before there was a Burke, or even a Lufkin, there was Ryan Chapel," Weeks said, whose grandparents attended the church in the 1880s.

Weeks said that he plans on wearing the ring to church on Sunday, and that he couldn't be happier to have it back after all these years.

"I can't thank you boys enough," he said. "I hope you keep on hunting. Pretty soon you might find something you can keep."