GUEST: My daddy bought this ring for my mom after, um, she fell into the, uh, Arkansas River off of our houseboat.

The Delta Queen was docking at the Island Harbor Marina in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

And we were docking our houseboat, and Mama fell in, and she couldn't swim.

And the undercurrent pulled her under, and she didn't come back up.

And so we were all panicking and we thought she was drowning.

And finally, daddy and my brothers jumped in, and I jumped in, and we found her, and we pulled her back up.

And daddy was so upset, he sold the house boat the next day, and bought this ring for my mother.

And we used to always kid her, saying, "Mama, you're wearing our houseboat."

(soft chuckle) And we were just glad to have our mother safe and sound, you know?

Daddy got this ring because he had a good friend.

His name was Zappy, who his girlfriend was trying to get him to give her this ring.

Zappy told daddy, "I've got to sell this ring before this woman makes me marry her," and so daddy went over to Zappy's and bought the ring the next day.

APPRAISER: What year did this happen in?

GUEST: This was back in about the 1980s.

APPRAISER: What did he pay for the ring?

GUEST: Daddy gave Zappy $5,000 for the ring.

My mom, she enjoyed this ring so much.

She would take it to her little luncheons and wear it, and just, you know, "la dee da."

And she wanted me to have it, and she wanted to pass it down to my-my daughter.

Mama had passed away about 20 years ago, and I've been wearing it ever since.

I know my mother is smiling down from heaven.

Just means so much to me that this ring is on this show today.

It just breaks my heart that this ring is on this show today.

APPRAISER: It's really a spectacular and comfortable piece of jewelry.

It's platinum, from the 1950s.

It's probably made right here in America.

It's a beautifully made mounting with round, brilliant cut stones that graduate.

The stone in the center is a very clean, brilliant cut diamond, almost 3.5 carats.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: It's also slightly fluorescent, so if we had a sunnier day than we had today, it would really pop.

I'm calculating the carat weight of the side, of the smaller stones between the round and the baguette cut stones at around 1.8 carats or a 1.80.

So the ring has a total carat weight above five carats.

A retail value today for this ring is in the range of $60,000 to $70,000.

GUEST: Geez-o-Pete-o.

(laughs) Oh wow!

Man.

I better get some insurance on it.

(laughs)