Yukie Yoshinaka Payne

Yukie Yoshinaka Payne, 87, formerly of Temple passed away peacefully at home in Arlington on February 17, 2010. She was preceded in death by her husband Claud M. Payne, whom she has now joined in Heaven so they can "get back to doing the Jitterbug". Funeral services will be held at 10:00 AM Monday, February 22, 2010 at Scanio-Harper Funeral Home, 3110 Airport Road, Temple, Texas 76504. Interment will follow at Bellwood Memorial Park. Visitation will be held 2:00 - 5:00 PM Sunday at the funeral home. Mrs. Payne was born on February 22, 1922, in Seattle, Washington to Seiichi and Akiko (Tani) Yoshinaka. A housewife, mother and grandmother, she enjoyed baking fresh bread and handing out homemade cookies. Many happy years were also spent bowling in the Temple Senior Citizen Leagues and being a volunteer at Scott & White Hospital. After she graduated from Connell High School in 1940 as the valedictorian of her class, her father sent her to Japan in 1941 to attend cultural college. Because she contracted typhoid fever, she missed the last ship back to the United States before the attack on Pearl Harbor and had to spend the remainder of the war in Japan. At the conclusion of WWII, she worked as an interpreter and translator for the U.S. Army. In 1948, after returning to Japan from a trip to Seattle, she met and later married Claud M. Payne, who was serving with the United States Army. Mrs. Payne worked as a secretary for American Desk and then for the U.S. Department of Agriculture until her retirement in 1985. She is survived by her children, a daughter, Robin Payne of Baytown; a son and daughter-in-law, Claud W. and Sue Payne of Centennial, Colorado and a daughter, Tina Blevins of Arlington. There are two grandchildren, Melanie Johnson of Fort Worth and Nicholas Payne of Centennial, Colorado. Also surviving are two brothers, Kiyoshi Yoshinaka and Jimmy Yoshinaka. In addition to her husband, she was also preceded in death by five siblings, three brothers and two sisters; Kazuo Yoshinaka, Masato Yoshinaka, Kenji Yoshinaka, Mariko Ewing and Takeko (Cookie) Morris. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Odyssey Health Care, 2630 West Fwy, Ste.102, Fort Worth, TX 76102.