John Robert Payne

Notes:

Web posted Sunday, March 30, 2003 6:36 a.m. CT

John Payne Area

BOOKER - John Payne, 18, died Friday, March 28, 2003. Services will be at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Booker School Auditorium with the Rev. Ralph Mireles and J.T. Goombi officiating. A second service will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday in First Caddo Baptist Church in Fort Cobb, Okla. Local arrangements are by Johnson's Good Samaritan Funeral Service of Booker.

Mr. Payne was born June 27, 1984, in Lawton, Okla., to Paul and Gracie Salas Payne.

Survivors include his parents; a brother, Jamie Paul Payne of Lawton, Okla.; and a sister, Jessica Payne of Booker.

Amarillo Globe-News, March 30, 2003

Living married Living [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Known as "Snort" from the noise he used to make as a baby when feeding.

He was a teacher in Cushing, Oklahoma for a long time. He read widely. Marvin later had a job working with the Indian community.

He liked Pow wows and "good" music. His favorite cigarette was Camel, cigar White Owl, drink Gin, sport football, and his favorite authors were the poets Byron and Whitman.

He was 54 when he died. The funeral services were held at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Andarko. His pall bearers were Joe Mayfield, Oral Jackson, Glenn Payne, Ed Monasco, Windell Haley and Homer Strong.

Marvin married Willadine "Deana" Myers on 29 Jan 1950 in Apache, Caddo County, Oklahoma. Willadine was born on 28 Jul 1926 in Oklahoma; died on 28 Nov 1993 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Dena was a half German & half Native American (25% Caddo and 25% Commanche). She was a member of the Commanche Nation.

Notes:

Kenneth Harvey wrote the following brief biography of Marvin Walter Payne: Marvin was named after the Methodist Bishop Marvin whom his mother particularly respected.

Marvin was about twelve years old when his photograph was taken in a family group with his parents. This photograph survives and is in the collection of Lewis Adair Payne (1997).

As a teenager he was out on the trail cattle herding with his father when he became very ill. Totally incapacitated he was left to lie in agony on the bedrolls in the accompanying chuck wagon. They were miles from anywhere. He later believed that the severe bouncing and bucking of the wagon as it slowly and labourously moved across the untamed countryside saved his life. Much later on it was proved that he had in fact survived a burst appendix; not a very common occurance. Most die from it. He was to say in later years that "I left my appendix on the Western Trail and the cattle walked over it."

He worked as a cowboy and attended high school part-time until he was twenty.

There is another photograph, this time of his high school graduation in from Quanah High School in May 1901. This shows him holding his sheepskin diploma-no "mere paper" at that time! The photograph shows five girls dressed like bridesmaids and one boy with a flower in his button hole, all students surrounding a man who is presumably the school principal. Marvin, the solitary boy (young adult), is at the rear (apparently education was not a very macho activity among the youth of the town). His younger sister Effie stands to his immediate right. Marvin read an essay to the assembled parents on "Closing Events of the Nineteenth Century." His sister Effie read an essay on "Duty." One of the other girls present was a Payne double first cousin, Lula Pearl McClanahan (daughter of Fred Lafayette McClanahan and Calla Payne). She read an essay on "Courage." Other graduating students were Bettie Carter, Cora B. Matlock, and a Miss Johnson. A long term correspondence with Miss Gabie E. Betts, later Burton (1871-?) begins after Marvin graduates from Quanah High School. Miss Gabie, as she refers to herself, used to live in Quanah where she taught in the elementary School. She was known as one of the best primary school teachers in the Panhandle. She later moved to teach at Clarendon College. She addresses Marvin in very affectionate terms--indeed as her son. The letters were saved by Grace after Marvin's death, and passed down to Mary Ann Mounts Payne.

Marvin graduated in 1903 from the Metropolitan Business School.

Marvin married Grace Gentry in 1907 and the young couple lived with her parents for some years in Oklahoma until they moved back to Quanah, Texas. He then worked there in a lumber company from about 1912.

On his father's death in 1916 the family farm was mortgaged and the family divided the proceeds. Marvin fell heir to the mortgage and immediately rented it out to help pay off the mortgage . He now worked as a book-keeper for a wholesale company in Chickasha, circa. 1920, and then moved back to Duncan where he was involved in a restaurant. He didn't stay long at that and he was to become the manager of the Chickasha Cotton Oil Mill in 1921. He then lost this job when the mill was sold during the depression. The family returned to live on the farm, four miles S.W. of Marlow, on Hell Creek. Unfortunately times were very difficult and he could not keep up the payments. The family property was repossessed by the mortgage company. The local official delivering the eviction notice, in about 1937, was a friend and he was to say "Marvin I hate to do this to you." The poor man's only response was "You have to, its your job." Marvin put the papers on the kitchen table in the house and never looked at them. The whole tragic experience hit him very hard indeed and really robbed him of all subsequent motivation. They now put the family furniture in storage but could not even keep up these payments; consequently it too was all lost. To add insult to injury, some years later oil was discovered ont he farm and today (1997) there is a sign which says; "Chevron USA Inc, W.M. Payne Lease Sec 35-2N-8W."

Grace's mother was unable to keep up payment on her own home mortgage, and sold the residence to her daughter and Marvin for a dollar. The families moved in with Mary on Spruce road. It was not long, however, before Marvin was unable to keep up those payments, and that house was lost as well. It was a bitter time. At some point the family returned to the old Marlow farmstead which they had been forced to leave, paying rent to live there. Marvin eventually went to work with a cattle auction company.

According to Fay Payne Yeager, Thomas R. Marshall (Vice President of the United States) was a cousin of Martha Jane Marshall Payne. He stayed in the home of Marvin and Grace (Gentry) Payne while on a speaking tour of Oklahoma. He said he remembered attending family reunions with Martha when he was younger.

M. W. Payne, Long Resident Here Dies

Duncan Banner Monday Jan. 5, 1947 Pg. 1 Transcribed by C. R. Strong 11-29-2003

Marvin Walter Payne, 1106 Oak, died at 10 o'clock Sunday night in a local hospital after a lengthy illness. He was a retired accountant.
The funeral service will be held at the Beeson Grantham Funeral Home chapel at 3:30 p. m. Tuesday, with the Rev. John A Callan (sic), pastor of the First Methodist Church, and the Rev. Thurmond George, pastor of the First Baptist Church, officiating.
Born in Gainesville, Tex., Pay ne came to Duncan in 1904 and had been a resident here for more than 40 years.
Surviving are the widow; three sons, Chad In Berlin, Germany, Lewis Adair of Stillwater, and Marvin W. jr., Duncan; one daughter, Mrs. Bob Thompson, Pampa, Tex;, one brother, Aubry (sic) H., Muleshoe, Tex; and five grandchildren.
Pallbearers are Rich Edwards, Bill Boydston, J. B. McLendon, Leroy Tucker, Oscar Young, J. D. Walker, Leonard Bumpas, and H. C. Allen.

Marvin Payne is Buried in Marlow From an unidentified Duncan, OK newspaper, dated 1948

Death took a longtime resident of Stephens County this week after he had been ill for many years. Marvin Walter Payne died in a Duncan Hospital Sunday night. He had lived in Duncan and vicinity most of the time since 1904 and will be remembered as the manager of the Duncan Cotton Oil Mill, a position which he held for many years. Payne was born in Gainsville, Texas. When he was a child, his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Payne, moved to Quannah, Texas, where they owned one of the big ranches in that part of the country. Payne was reared and educated in Quannah. He came to Duncan as a young man. He married Grace Ellen Gentry of Arthur in 1907.

He was in Chickasha for many years where he was connected with the Chickasha Cotton Oil Mill. In the early thirties he became ill and moved back to the old homeplace northwest of Duncan. He is survived by his widow and his four children, Chad who is now stationed with the Army in Berlin, Germany; Lewis Adair, Stillwater; Marvin W. Jr., Duncan, and Mrs Bob Thompson, Pampa, Texas. Funeral Services were held at the Beeson-Grantham Funeral chapel on Tuesday afternoon with the Rev. John A Callan of the First Methodist Church and the Rev. Thurmond George of the First Baptist Church officiating. He was buried in the Marlow Cemetery.

NOTE No Headstone in Marlow Cemetery, but known to be in Sect 10 Blk 10 (Lot 5?), Believed to be b.1-17-1881 d. 1-4-1948

(Research):World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918
Name: Marvin Walter Payne
City: Chickasha
County: Grady
State: Oklahoma
Birth Date: 17 Jan 1881
Race: White
Roll: 1851777
DraftBoard: 1
Age: 37
Occupation: Book keeper
Employer: J.D. Turner & Co., Chickasha, Grady Co. OK
Nearest relative: Grace Payne, Chickasha, Grady Co. OK
Height/Build: ------
Color of Eyes/Hair: Brown/Brown

Census Information:

1930 census Stephens Co. OK King Twp., ED 69-7
Sheet 13B 511 So. 8th (?)
217/233
Payne, Marvin W., MW 49 M 26 TX MO MO
Payne, Grace, wife FW 41 M 18 TX TN WV
Payne, Chadwick, son MW 22 S OK TX TX
Payne, Mary, dau. FW 17 S OK TX TX
Payne, Lewis, son MW 16 OK TX TX
Payne, Marvin, Jr., son MW 4 9/12 S OK TX TX

They owned their home, with a value of $2000, and owned a radio as well.

(Courtesy of Lynell Cordell)

Marvin married Grace Ellen Gentry on 22 Jan 1907 in Stephens County, Oklahoma. Grace (daughter of William Miller Gentry and Mary "Molly" Evelyn Mounts) was born on 3 Nov 1888 in Decatur, Wise County, Texas; died on 16 Dec 1966 in Stillwater, Payne County, Oklahoma; was buried in Duncan, Stephens County, Oklahoma. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Possibly lived in Paris, Lamar Co., Texas at some point. This town was sometimes referred to by Grace Ellen Gentry.

Died at 2010 Admiral Road, Stillwater, OK.

She had a strong dislike of all things Texan.

Photograph at 140 lbs (usually 125lbs) Norvelle Studio, Chickasha, Oklahoma, circa 1923. She disliked the picture as a result.

1927-She was instrumental in organizing the Payne/Gentry family reunion in 1927. The event took place at the home of Annie O'Neill's home in Duncan.

1934-On the sixth of April 1934, Mary E. Gentry, widow, sells to Grace Payne (her daughter) for one dollar and love and affection the west half of lot six (6) in block sixty-seven (67) together with all improvements thereon, in the City of Duncan, Stephens County, Oklahoma. Grace and Marvin had just lost their farm being unable to pay the mortgage. Molly continued to live for another six years but this house on 8th and Spruce Street was also lost for the same reasons. Molly continued to live with her daughter and her family until she died.

1948-Grace Payne (nee Gentry) notified "To Whom it May Concern" on the 21st of June that she, E.J. Gentry, J.W. Gentry, Pearl Hall, E.H. Gentry, Carl H. Payne, J.E. Payne, Vera Young, Virginia Hardin, Louise Birnie, Mary Ethel Jones and Jeanne Turner, all heirs of W.M. Gentry, claimed to own the mineral rights of their father's old property and intended to have the matter determined by the Court. [Payne, Grace Ellen (1948) Affidavit giving legal notice of intention to file suit in District Court of Stephens County, Oklahoma, Ref: Book 414, page 344] It is not clear who this claim was directed at. Frank and Emory had continued the farn between them. Frank had died in 1928, and John Vernon Gentry continues the connection with his grandfather's land to this day (1997).

Grace Gentry was a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). She claimed membership under her grandfather, W.J. Gentry. It was actually her grandfather John Melton Gentry, whose name Grace confused, who served in the Confederate Army. Grace was determined to get into the UDC and it was known she was not going to let anything, such as her other grandfather William J. Mounts' service in the Union Army, to get in her way. An incomplete draft of her application, remaining in the family, lists her parents as William Melton (sic) Gentry (born 1851 TN, died Sept. 1829 Duncan, OK) and his wife as Mary Evelyn Mounts (born Aug 1857, Died Aug 10, 1940 Duncan, OK). She went on to list her grandfather as William John Gentry (of Darnells, TX born in TN) and his wife as Pamela Harpoole (also born in TN).