Mildred Freeman Payne was born on December 25, 1917 in Grand Saline, Texas to Garland Franklin Freeman and Era Hendley Freeman. She was the youngest of five children. She received a degree in teaching and launched a forty year career as a first grade teacher at Bluebonnet Elementary School in Fort Worth, Texas. She met and fell in love with her soul mate, Jonathan Mack Payne, Jr., married, and had their only child Jonathan Mack Payne, III in 1943, while her husband was on a naval ship in the South Pacific during WWII. She was an outstanding communicator, educator, loyal friend, and loving wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She was active in her community, Colonial Country Club, the Garden Club, multiple bridge clubs, and First United Methodist Church of Fort Worth. She loved to dance, travel, cook, and spend time with friends and family. She is survived by her son, Jonathan Mack Payne, III and his wife Anne Payne, her granddaughter Laura Payne Dunham and her husband Will, as well as two great-grandchildren. On May 25, 2017, after nearly a century of life, she passed away peacefully in her sleep in the company of her granddaughter. We can only imagine the reunion she had with her husband when she arrived in heaven. Whether you called her Mildred, Millie, or Diddie, she will never be forgotten in your heart.
