Ladell Mae Payne

LaDell Mae Hansen Payne, of Williamsburg, VA and formerly of Pueblo West, CO, passed away on January 8, 2024. She was born in 1931 in Salt Lake City, UT. She was preceded in death by her father, Aaron Hansen; her mother, Marva Jensen; her husband, Neal Austin; her husband, Jerald Payne; her son, Robert Austin; and eight of her siblings.

She was a graduate of Davis High School and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Seminaries, Kaysville, UT 1949; and a former Member of Bountiful Community Church and Pueblo West Baptist Church. As the eldest daughter, sixth in birth order of nine, she grew up helping her mother with keeping house and her father on the family sawmill in Escalante. After graduating High School, she started her career as telephone operator for Mountain Bell and American Telephone and Telegraph in Bountiful and ended her work life with retirement from Meals on Wheels SRDA in Pueblo.

She loved cooking for her family and friends, decorating cakes and making multiple trays of peanut brittle as Christmas gifts. She leaves behind a series of family cookbooks she compiled and her sunny disposition in her son Rick. She enjoyed socializing and was a member her church group "The Sunshine Ladies", the Red Hat Society, the Eastern Star, and she supported the Bountiful Jeep Posse among other organizations over her 92 years. Her community, friends, children, and dogs gave her immense pleasure and she was thankful for the caregivers who made the last years of her life comfortable.

She is survived by her son, Richard Austin (Frances) of VA; her daughter-in-law, Carol Austin of FL; and her sister, Colleen Childs of UT.

Private Interment at Imperial Memorial Gardens, West Pueblo, CO at a future date.