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???