The News Letter's role in returning the ring
The News Letter was the first paper this side of the Atlantic to report the story which inspired the Closing the Ring movie. STEVEN MOORE recalls the true story behind the Hollywood glitz
HolLywood movies aren't renowned for their historical accuracy, and Closing the Ring – which had its world premiere in Belfast last night – is no different. But, even though I can only claim a fleeting association with Ruth Dundon, on who the character played by Shirley MacLaine is based, I imagine she wouldn't have minded – for her's was truly a love story.
EXCLUSIVE
It was the News Letter that broke the story of the discovery of a wedding ring worn by a US serviceman killed in a plane crash on Cavehill – and we played a crucial role in "closing the ring" with its return to Ruth.
It was in the summer of 1996 that I first met Alfred Montgomery, the man who found the inscribed band of gold.
Alfie, like myself, had grown up hearing stories of the American plane that had crashed into the mountainside, just above where the city zoo now ends.
The incident was a huge sensation at the time and my own father, like countless others, had visited the scene as a boy in the hope of finding a souvenir.
The B-17 had crossed the Atlantic just days before the D-Day landings and had been intending to land at the huge Langford lodge base.
The pilots had become disorientated in the heavy mist hanging over the Province and are believed to have mistaken Belfast Lough for Lough Neagh – ploughing into the mountainside with the loss of all 10 men onboard.
But whereas I had never felt the need to see the crash site, Alfie had returned time and again, digging in the soil with his bare hands for any traces left behind of the Flying Fortress.
FIND
In 1993 he struck lucky, finding a wedding ring engraved with initials and a date – and set out to trace the owner.
He applied for details of the flight and 10 crew under the American freedom of information laws and was amazed to receive back a huge folder of information from which, by a process of elimination, he identified Larry Dundon, the plane's radio operator, as the owner.
Alfred wrote off to the address in Louisville, Kentucky, given for Larry's wife Ruth in the 1944 files but received no reply.
He naturally assumed she had long since moved but, it later transpired, she was still living there but had never received his letter.
Aided by his fiance Dawn, who later became his wife, Alfred persisted in his quest and placed an advert in the local newspaper. It wasn't seen by Ruth but a columnist took up his cause and the link was made.
On this side of the Atlantic the impact of the News Letter's story was immediate and dramatic – the phone did not stop ringing following publication, with many of the calls coming from other journalists throughout the UK keen to do follow-ups.
On September 21, 1996, Alfred, Dawn and myself flew out of Belfast International Airport for Louisville.
The following morning we drove out to Ruth's church, where she waited amidst family and friends in a hall set out as if for a wedding reception.
GREETING
Our greeting could not have been warmer – indeed, my main difficulty as a reporter was trying to watch proceedings and take notes while shaking hands and chatting with the stream of guests who wanted to thank the paper for our gesture in flying Alfred and the ring to Louisville.
Alfred, after saying a few words, presented Ruth with the ring amid applause from the guests. It was, above all else, a happy occasion.
When I finally got to have a word with Ruth on her own she was more concerned that I was doing ok and that the little Union Flags placed on the tables alongside the Stars and Stripes, were right.
"Some people told me Tricolours, but I said 'no', Northern Ireland is part of Britain. That's right, isn't it?" she asked.
I found her a quiet, self-contained woman and every inch a lady. With carefully chosen words she told me something of her brief married life with Larry and the love they shared, and recounted travelling to his base in Florida, where, as events were to turn out, they spent their last few days together.
She remarried after the war, though her second husband had died just a short time before she found out that her original wedding ring had been found.
Ruth has since passed away. I imagine, though, had she been spared, that she would have been bemused by all the fuss, but undaunted. She was that sort of woman.
Closing the Ring is in cinemas from December 28.
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Tuesday 29 May 2012
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