Children of Dr. & Mrs. I.B. Payne: Helen Peters

Of the seven children in this family, I've more often mentioned Joel and Brax, the older boys, and Buddy, the youngest of the seven. However, a significant number of descendents of Dr. I.B. Payne came from Helen Halcyon Payne, the oldest of the seven children. These descendents include Dr. George Hearn, the long-time president of the Payne-Foster Reunion and professor of sociology at Louisiana College who died in 2010, and James Paul Peters, former Winnfield coroner and radiologist.

Helen Payne married Isaac A. Peters in 1887 at age 21. For a while this family resided in Dodson and attended the local Methodist church, but later moved they moved east to the Franklin Parish area. Helen's obituary appeared in the Winnfield newspaper in 1931 and reported that her husband had died prior to her and that Helen for the previous eleven years had been partially incapacitated and in a wheelchair due to paralysis from a stroke. Helen was survived at her death in 1931 by two sons, Ira and Paul, and her four daughters, Rose Jane (Mrs. Allen Albert Smith), Verda Virginia (Mrs. Henry Elbert Harlan), Mattie Mae (Mrs. Thomas Watson Hearn), and Gladys Ophelia (Mrs. James E. Boyett).

A niece and daughter of Buddy Payne (LaVerne Simmons) remembered her aunt in her later years as not often visiting the Dodson area, but sending letters and cards to Buddy and Martha from time to time and checking on them. Helen was said to have emphasized the importance of a good education for her children and trying to encourage them in that regard.