Charles N. Payne Jr.

Died February 11, 2016 in Dunwoody, Georgia. He was 90 years old. The son of Charles Newton Payne, Sr. and Jemima Monts Payne, he was born in Saltillo, Mississippi, on September 8, 1925. Following his graduation from high school in 1943, he entered the University of Mississippi for one semester. At the age of 18, he joined the U.S. Army and served in World War II in the European Theater of Operations. He completed the program for surgical technician at Brooke General Hospital, Fort Sam Houston, in San Antonio, Texas. He served in the Medical Department of the 51st Armored Infantry Battalion of the 4th Armored Division. Because of the critical need for medical personnel on the battlefront, he was assigned as a combat medic with the infantry battalion. His tour of duty included Alsace-Lorraine, Bastogne and the campaign in Germany. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and Oak Leaf Cluster to the medal. Following his 27-month tour of duty, he was discharged and returned to the University of Mississippi. At Ole Miss, he was a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity where he served in several official capacities. He received the degree of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science. His early professional career was in the field of education for five years. He taught in the Jackson, Mississippi Public Schools and was an instructor in Biology at Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Wesson, Mississippi. After a brief period with the Public Health Service, he entered the Department of Hospital Administration in the School of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He was awarded the degree of Master of Hospital Administration. As a part of this program, he spent one year as an Administrative Resident at Touro Infirmary in New Orleans, Louisiana. Spanning a period of some 35 years in hospital administration, he served for a total of 14 years as administrator of the Methodist Hospital in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and the South Central Regional Medical Center in Laurel, Mississippi. Active in his profession, he was a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives. In the Mississippi Hospital Association, he served as a member of the Board of Governors and was President in 1966-67. Also, he was a delegate to the American Hospital Association and a delegate to the Southeastern Hospital Conference. He served as an adjunct professor in Hospital Administration at the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham, Alabama, and at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He joined Charter Medical Corporation in Atlanta in 1972. He was administrator of Shallowford Community Hospital (Dunwoody Medical Center - Emory) for seven years. He was responsible for opening, organizing, and staffing that facility. In 1979, he moved to Houston, Texas, where he was an associate administrator of Herman Hospital, director of Park Plaza Hospital, and a Vice President of Lifemark Corporation. At Lifemark, he had administrative responsibility for 15 hospitals in Texas and Louisiana. He returned to Georgia in 1988 to serve as President of Columbus Healthcare Resources, an affiliate of the Medical Center, Columbus, Georgia. For an overlapping period 1986-1992, he served as a member of the Board of Directors of Healthvest, a national corporation of psychiatric hospitals based in Austin, Texas. Following many career moves, he returned to retire in Atlanta in 1990. Active in religious and civic organizations, he was a lifelong member of the United Methodist Church. During both stints in Atlanta, he was a member of Dunwoody United Methodist Church. He was a member of Administrative Boards of six Methodist churches. He was a longtime member of Kiwanis clubs in five different cities. Married for 40 years, he was preceded in death in 1992 by his wife the former Jean McAlpin of Magee, Mississippi. He is survived by two daughters, Emily Payne of Atlanta; Lauren Patton, her husband Stewart and granddaughter Amanda of Dunwoody. The body will be cremated. Internment of remains will be in the family plot in the cemetery at Saltillo, Mississippi. A memorial service will be at Dunwoody United Methodist Church at 2:00 PM on March 5, 2016. The family will receive friends in the church parlor at 1:00 PM. Memorial gifts may be made to Dunwoody United Methodist Church, 1548 Mt. Vernon Road, Dunwoody, Georgia, 30338.