Sue Payne Leach  (June 19, 1924 - July 1, 2014)



A faithful and long-time attendee of Payne/Foster Reunions died last month.  Sue Payne was the ninth of ten children of I.B. (Buddy) and Martha Payne.  Living in Hudson, very near the site of her father's and mother's home and community store, Sue Leach was a friend of many and a church member of the Welcome Home Church on Highway 34.  She was the wife of Phillip Leach, who preceded her in death years ago.

 

Sue Leach is survived by her two sons, Robert and Don, and two daughters, Geneva and Tami, as well as a sister, Laura Bonnete, of Ruston and a brother, I.B. Payne of Bossier City.  She had numerous grandchildren, nieces, and nephews.  The Hudson Community won't be the same with Sue Leach's passing.

 

Marilyn Pippen Payne

We received word recently of the passing in June 2014 of Marilyn Pippen Payne, wife of Dr. Jerry Payne and mother of Melissa McCollum, a previous president of the Payne/Foster Reunion.  Marilyn Pippen met Jerry Payne while they both attended Northwestern State University in Natchitoches and had been married 56 years.  Marilyn and Jerry Payne had five children, two sons, Maldon and Ronnie, and three daughters, Donnis, Melissa, and Jeannie, and they resided in Marshall, TX.

Dr. Jerry Payne and his children are descendants of Braxton Payne, one of the seven children of Dr. I.B. Payne and Sarah Foster Kidd Payne.  Braxton Payne was a businessman and community leader in the Dodson area in the first half of the twentieth century. 

The Old Young Cabin in Hudson

 

Although things may move a bit slower and easier in the Hudson Community, there are a few changes there from time to time.  The Buddy and Martha Young Payne branch of the family has more descendants who live in or visit the immediate area than other branches of the extended Dr. I.B. Payne family.  One special place for them is the old Young cabin that was built by Robert and John T. Young in the 1870s.  Their grandaughter and daughter, Martha married Buddy Payne in 1905, and when she died in 1954, she left it to her son Jack.  Some say that she did so, because he helped his parents during World War II by sending part of his monthly check to his parents.  Other say she left it to her seventh child and second son, because she thought that he was more likely to take care of it due to his interest and practical mechanical skills.

 

The old Young cabin was a four-room, breezeway or dog-trot style design with heart of pine logs.  By the 1950s, the place was in pretty bad shape and had not had anyone living there for some years.  Jack Payne over the next few decades worked spare time from his job as an electrician at the West Monroe papermill to restore and rebuild the old cabin.  He removed and replaced only a few of the external logs, but he expanded the south end of he cabin by creating both a room for a kichen and a bathroom.  The orginal four cells of the cabin became two larger rooms, a bedroom and a den/living room.  By frugal choices of building materials/supplies, appliances, etc., Jack was able to slowly get the place in shape so that his relatives and children could enjoy the place.  Jack Payne died in 1995.

 

None of his four children has the skills and craftsmanship interests of their father, but they have tried to preserve the cabin and keep it in reasonable shape.  The latest among several changes to the cabin and vicinity is a new roof placed on it in March 2014.  Before it had corrugated tin sheets that would rust and very infrequently leak.  Replacing those tin sheets was a chore that his son and grandson did not relish doing again.  So, Allied Roofing in Monroe undertook the task of putting an insulated, colored roof on the cabin.  The result can be viewed below.

 

 





CALVIN HOOVER PAYNE

 

Calvin Hoover Payne died on February 23, 2013 at the age of 85.  Although the Payne/Foster Reunion obviously includes the descendants of Dr. Isaac and Sarah Foster Kidd Payne, efforts by Peggy Payne years ago led to the identification of many descendants of two of Dr. Payne's brothers, Jeremiah and Joseph B. Payne.  Both brothers, like Isaac, left Georgia after the Civil War, came to Louisiana, and started families here.  Some of the descendants of these two brothers attended our reunions in later years.  One of these individuals was Cavin Payne.    

 

Calvin served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and the Korean War, was multitalented, very personable, a great neighbor, and loved animals.  He had been a mail carrier and clerk, oilfield man, and an oil and gas lease salesman.  He was outgoing, confident and wanted to make people laugh.  He instilled an important sense of self responsibility in his children.  Calvin sang in a barbershop quartet, and when in a nursing home later he would often sing old gospel songs.

 

He was preceded in death by his parents, Jacob B. Payne (son of Joseph B. Payne) and Edith Mae Causey Payne Crawford and step-father, Rev. M.B. Crawford . He was also preceded in death by all his sisters, Eunice Payne Hughes, Maxey Payne Jones Coon, and Oma Payne Goins.  Calvin was survived by his son, Mike Payne; daughter, Melissa Payne Reid; granddaughters, Deni Reid Troxclair, Rene Reid Beaubouef, and Sierra Marie Payne; great-granddaughter, Cala Fay Troxclair; special niece, Tami Jones Watkins and husband, Charlie; and numerous nieces and nephews.

 

 

 





Today in the Hudson Community

 

 

Beyond the annual Payne/Foster reunions, and the biannual reunions of the Buddy and Martha Payne family branch, a few of these folks still live there.  Sue Leach (1924- ), a daughter of Buddy and Martha Payne, still lives just down the road from her parent's old place.  Patsy Sharp also resides there in the old Buddy and Martha home that her father, her husband, and she have restored and modernized over many years.  Laura Bonnette, an older sister of Sue Leach and mother of Patsy Sharp, lives in Ruston, but spends time also at her cabin just up the road from her daughter's home.

 

Others in this family own property and have cabins or residences which they visit periodically.  A few visit their places and hunt deer in the piney woods of the area.  Buddy and Martha's youngest son, I.B., now in his late eighties, his son Doug, and grandson Bryan are there from time to time.  Steve Payne spends about a week each month at the old cabin built by his great-grandfather, John T. Young, somewhere around 1880.  Steve's father, Jack Payne (1918-1995), worked to restore the old cabin (with its heart-of-pine logs) in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. 

 

Sisters Jedonne Bradford and Olliene Thomas, daughters of Ollie Payne Kelly, also have a cabin across the road from Patsy Sharp and visit periodically.  Their mother died in 2012, just short of what would have been her 100th birthday.  On her inherited land from her father was the site of what was called the "old spring."  This spring served the Buddy and Martha family and their livestock's needs.  Prior to her death, Ollie Kelly and her daughters wanted to do something to commemorate or mark that site of the "old spring."   Steve Payne decided to try to build a short fence and gate leading to the "old spring" using the bamboo that had sprung up in places around the area.  Jedonne Bradford came up with a gate design for it.  The result is shown on the photos below.  The first photo shows it near completion, still with a blue tarp at the top of the 7-foot or more fence.  The second photo shows it after completion.  Wonder what Ollie Kelly would have thought about this???