Buddy (I.B.) Payne

Buddy Payne was the seventh and youngest child of Dr. I. B. Payne and his wife Sarah. As a young man, he worked at his brother's (Brax's) sawmill and boarded in the home of John T. and Elizabeth Burnett Young. Buddy married their youngest daughter, Martha Geneva Young, on August 10, 1905. Shortly after his marriage, Buddy Payne completed work on a house for his family. That house, remodeled somewhat over the years by his son-in-law James Bonnette and then his granddaughter Patsy Sharp and her husband, survives today (as does the even older and restored cabin of John T. Young).

Although very busy with his community store, farm, and family, Buddy Payne served in several roles in his community, including a term as a supervisor for the Winn Parish Board of Public Roads. He was also a prime fundraiser each year for the Hudson Holiness Camp Meeting, and he organized and led efforts a couple of times a year to hoe and keep weeds away from the gravestones at the New Hope Church Cemetery grounds. Buddy had a great interest in regional and national politics and would read the newspapers and listen to the radio coverage of the national political conventions. He was a strong supporter of William Jennings Bryan and then later Huey and Earl Long and their efforts to bring roads and schools to rural parts of the state. Another feature of both Buddy of his brother Jim was a love for reading and reciting poetry.

Buddy Payne died December 29, 1970 at the age of 91 years.