The buyer of the Perdue emerald was not disclosed by New York City auction house Sotheby's.

Sotheby's Photo

Mitzi Perdue inside a bombed police station near Ukraine's border with Belarus in August.

Mitzi Perdue Photo

Mitzi Perdue on her late husband: “Frank was the most philanthropic person I ever knew. I figure he would be enchanted that this ring has the possibility of saving countless numbers of people in Ukraine from a really miserable winter."

Perdue Family Photo

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When Frank and Mitzi Perdue were first engaged they had a discussion she still thinks about.

“We talked about what we wanted to do with the rest of our lives. He told me his goal for the years that remained – and he was 68 at the time – was to be closer to his family, his community and his church. Part of being closer to his community was being charitable and being charitable was part of what made him tick,” his 81-year-old widow said during a recent conversation about the 5.7-carat emerald engagement ring he gave her.

The lovely, octagon-shaped, step-cut stone, set in gold, was recovered from a 17th century shipwreck in the mid-1980s and Mrs. Perdue cherished it. But, to help the people of Ukraine, suffering after Russia invaded their country in February, Mrs. Perdue allowed the ring to be auctioned, on Dec. 7, at Sotheby’s New York, to provide Ukrainians with food, warm clothing and portable heaters.

Despite the sentiment attached to the 400-year-old emerald, Mrs. Perdue is certain her late husband would support her decision.

“Frank was the most philanthropic person I ever knew. I figure he would be enchanted that this ring has the possibility of saving countless numbers of people in Ukraine from a really miserable winter. A lot of the people who became refugees, they left it in the spring with one suitcase and they didn’t bring warm clothes so the need is just desperate.

“I don’t know who bought the ring. Sotheby’s isn’t revealing that, but this might intrigue people. I do know Steve Forbes tweeted to Elon Musk and Bill Gates something like, ‘Buy Mitzi’s ring. Support Ukraine.’ I didn’t ask him to do this. It makes me wonder who bought the ring for $1.2 million,” the 81-year-old said, adding she wasn’t certain of the exact wording of the Tweet.

The jewel was once aboard the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, one in a fleet of Spanish ships that sailed from Havana in September 1622. It had a crew of more than 250 and was carrying 40 tons of silver, gold and riches from regions of South America, according to several reports. A series of hurricanes upturned the ships and they sunk. The treasures ended up dispersed up at the bottom of the ocean.

Those treasures were scattered from the Marquesas Keys to the Dry Tortugas west of Key West, Fla., according to news accounts that also stated Spanish scavengers ardently looked for the Atocha and what it was carrying but the bounty wasn’t recovered until 1985 by an American treasure hunting expedition led by Mel Fisher, who received financial support from Frank Perdue.

Off the Florida Keys, about $400 million worth of gold and silver bars, coins and jewelry, plus six pounds of emeralds were found. Perdue was given several items including gold chains, coins and gems and he donated most of it to Delaware Technical Community College and the Smithsonian Institution.

He kept a gold coin and that stone that he had made into a ring that will now help thousands of Ukrainians.

Many of the buildings in Ukraine don’t have heat, lights or clean water and the people of Ukraine are struggling to survive in temperatures in the 20s, Mrs. Perdue said, adding she would like to see everyone who is able to also help them, even if they don’t have a lot of money. One way is to buy the $4.99 Kindle version of her recent book, “Relentless: Mark Victor Hansen.” Hansen co-created the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series.

“Every penny will help Ukraine,” she said.

The book was published in July, but she never had a book launching because she was in Ukraine.

“If 32 people buy it, in the next few days I can be No. 1 in an obscure category on Amazon. They have more than 1,000 categories so if you pick the most obscure one, it doesn’t take a lot,” she said, laughing.

Mrs. Perdue has written dozens of books and is a writer by trade, but lately the mention of her name brings to mind that stunning emerald, and her decision to donate it.

“The amount of attention it’s getting is mind blowing. It just thrills me beyond bearing. I got an e-amil from a man from Valencia, Spain. He and a group of his friends in some bar had tuned in to watch the emerald sale and they were cheering when the price went up. When it got to $1.2 million, they all gave a toast to Mitzi in Salisbury. Imagine in Valencia, Spain. I’m told every major newspaper has covered the story. I was just interviewed by CNN. The amount of good it can do. I loved owning it -- and I use the past tense now -- but it’s the satisfaction of knowing there could be thousands of people who aren’t cold, or are less cold,” she said.

She will return to Ukraine and be part of a cavalcade of trucks carrying items that are needed.

“I will have the extreme pleasure of getting to be part of that. I will actually see them deliver those items to the mayor of Kiev. I was in Ukraine in August. I was there for five days and I feel as if I met several friends. A family invited me to dinner. Their apartment is on the 21st story of the building. They don’t have heat. They eat by flashlight,” she said.

Perdue said she chose the Ukrainian people to benefit from the sale of the ring after she wrote an article for Psychology Today magazine. She interviewed a man from Odessa, a port city on the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, who was an eyewitness of human trafficking there. He wrote the thesis for his master’s degree on the problem of trafficking. During a Zoom call, he invited Mrs. Perdue to “come see for yourself.”

“Ten days later I’m in Ukraine. My first night there, there was an air raid and I spent a good bit of it in a bomb shelter. I saw the areas that are off-limits to just about everybody. The Kiev region includes Chernobyl (where a nuclear accident occurred in 1986) and it has radioactive hot spots. Since I was a guest of the Ukrainian police I was allowed in there but the car would be going 80 mph because if you’re going near a hot spot and you’re going 80 mph you’re not getting enough radiation to make you sick. Still, they checked me for radiation. I got to see things that most people don’t see,” she said.

“When I was making up my mind to do this, to have the ring auctioned, it occurred to me there might be other people who have ultra-high value items that they might put up for auction to help Ukraine. They are such warm people. I fell in love with them. I met one woman in the street. She spoke English. We got to talking and she was telling me about how the first month of the invasion all she could do was cry and then she looked at her 9-year-old daughter and said ‘I’m not any good to my daughter if I’m not being strong. I will be strong for my daughter.’ I was so moved by that we ended up in the longest, strongest hug.

“They are just really deserving of our help. I feel as if they are fighting for western civilization. I hear stories of just the horror that goes on there. In the areas the Russians occupy, they have filtration centers where there is a torture room, where they will take people. Their specialty is using electric shocks, for men where they would not like to be electrically shocked. The people they bring into the filtration camps say a person in a filtration camp asking ‘Who are the leaders of this town?’ The guy will try to resist but as some point they break them down,” she said, adding she heard about those captured being shot in the knees.

“I don’t think that kind of thing is getting out enough. A woman on social media said, ‘I’m not afraid of death. I’m not afraid of losing a limb. I’m not afraid of anything except that the west will stop supporting us.’ So, whatever tiny role I can play in helping encourage people to support Ukraine,” she said.

“I think Frank would make the same calculation I did, that if that ring could save untold numbers of people possibly from even death, I think he would eagerly endorse that. On the other hand it would take a lot for me to part with my wedding ring. I know him as well as anybody and I’m certain he would be proud. I want what I do to be a credit to Frank,” she said.

“I admired him so much. His are big shoes to fill. I could never fill his shoes but I’m walking in the same direction.”