Bobby R. Payne

Bobby R. Payne, 85, of Pearl passed away on Thursday, February 15, at Merit Health Hospital Crossgates, following extended illnesses beginning in 2013. Baldwin Lee Funeral Home in Pearl will be in charge of the services. The funeral will be at 11:00 o’clock on Monday, February 19 at McLaurin Heights Baptist at 404 Pemberton Drive in Pearl. Visitation will be on Sunday, February 18 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm at Baldwin Lee facility and on Monday from 9:00 to 10:50 am before the funeral at 11:00 am. Former pastor, Dr. Steve Jackson and present pastor Rev. Conner Alford will preside over the service.

Bob was born in Texas to the late Clyde Payne and Laura Thompson Payne, on September 15, 1932. He graduated from Morgan Texas High School where he was involved in basketball and church activities. He served in the Air Force during the Korean conflict, serving as a personnel office at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi during the duration of his commitment of four years enrollment. It was during that time that he attended First Baptist Church of Gulfport where he met and courted Mary Libby Bickerstaff. They were married Dec. 20, 1955 and celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary in 2017. From that marriage were born their 2 sons, Reece and Glenn.

Subsequent to Payne’s honorary discharge from the Air Force, he entered Mississippi College where he completed his bachelor’s degree in 2 years and 10 months. A few weeks after his graduation, he was employed by the Mississippi Employment Security Commission. Rising through the ranks he retired from the commission on February 3rd, 1995, after 37 years of service. His favorite job with the commission was as Director of the Training

Department, having been the youngest department head at that time. After a reorganization during the Reagan administration, he became head of Central Records.

Bob and Mary Libby moved to the Pearl area in 1957 a few months prior to his graduation where they have lived ever since, furnishing leadership in various areas of civil life. They were involved in the steps leading to incorporation of the city over a period of several years. He was one of the charter members of the group that brought the Boys’ Club to the Pearl area while his sons were on little league baseball teams. He served on several civic groups most especially on the task force to deter drug use among youth groups in the area.

His most rewarding civic volunteer service was with the Pearl Reserve Police. He was training officer 24 of the 25 years he was a Reserve. Because Pearl was so new and yet the twelfth largest city in the state when it was incorporated, a supplemental group to increase the police force presence was beneficial. Also, because there was not room in the police budget for extras, Bob and Jim Flint became the Pearl Police Pistol Team to compete in the numerous police pistol matches that were popular in the1970's and ‘80. Bob shot in the Master Class so there were numerous trophies that graced his home. The Pearl team won awards too. In fact, in those days the governor would honor the “Governor’s Top 20" marksmen for the year. Bob was in that group two years.

In his study to ever increase his knowledge of law enforcement he took all the criminal justice courses taught at Hinds Community College. As a result he also developed a course on ‘Women’s Self Defense” that he presented in churches, businesses, and sometimes individuals. He also taught several years in the Rankin Sheriff’s Reserve Police Academy where a small town would not have time or faculty to train one or two Reserve officers at the time. That also was a joy for Bob after his retirement.

Everyone who knew Bob considered him first and foremost, a Christian gentleman, who loved the Lord, the church, his family, and his community and lending a helping hand to those who needed it. Even while he was in

college, Payne would lend his beautiful tenor voice and leadership to revivals, choirs as interim music ministers, or as a soloist at various churches around central Mississippi. He even cut a record to meet the request of many members of First Baptist Church, Jackson, where he sang in the choir and special occasions. He continued that tradition after his family moved to McLaurin Heights Baptist in Pearl. That all came to an end when cancer of the thyroid robbed him of use of a vocal chord. The cancer was all gone, but so was his singing voice. Since he could no longer sing, he volunteered as chairman of the usher committee where he developed a rotation system that is still in use today.

However, Bob Payne’s greatest joy in Christian service came from his teaching Sunday School. His II Timothy 2:15 became his life verse. Numerous former members of classes he taught could testify to the inspiration they found under his teaching. He supported the Lord’s work financially. Never a rich man, he told his wife the first week they were married that the first check to be written each month would be the tithe and God would make the rest cover their needs. And God was true to His word in Bob’s life.

Bob Payne was predeceased by his parents, his sister, Margaret, his brother, James C., his sister in law Leona Payne, and two Payne nephews: J. C. and Dicky Ray Honea and two Bickerstaff nephews Howard M. Jr. and Joseph Raspilair II.

Surviving him are his loving wife, Mary Libby Payne, sons Glenn Russell Payne, and Reece Allen Payne (Beverly), and their adult children, Christine Elizabeth Payne and Matthew Kenneth Payne, all dearly beloved of Bob and each a blessing to his heart.