SGT Kenneth Field Payne was born 3 Jul 1908 in Albemarle County, Virginia. He was the first born of 4 children of Thomas Turner and Maude S. (Taylor) Payne. His father worked as a machinist for a railroad. His mother died of influenza in 1919 and Kenneth and his 3 sisters were sent to the Children's Home on Market Street in Charlottesville, Virginia while his father, now working as a carpenter, was boarding elsewhere in the city. His father re-married in 1920 and had 3 more children by 1927. Kenneth attended 1 year of high school before entering the work force. By 1930, Kenneth was working as a mill hand in a local lumber mill and living with the rest of his father's family of 15 on Belmont Park Road in Charlottesville. In March 1937, his father had to be hospitalized and he died in April 1937 of tuberculosis.
PFC Kenneth Payne had been enlisted in K Company 116th Infantry for a couple of years when it was federalized on 3 Feb 1941. He would then train with the unit at Fort Meade, Maryland, in the Carolina Maneuvers, and at Camp Blanding before sailing with his unit for England aboard the Queen Mary in September 1942. Once in England, Kenneth trained with his unit for the planned amphibious invasion of occupied Europe. PFC Payne was a part of that operation on 6 Jun 1944 and took part in the landings at Omaha Beach and fought with K Company after that. On 20 Jun 1944, he was promoted to SGT. SGT Payne was killed in action on 25 Jun 1944.
SGT Payne was repatriated in 1948 and re-interred in
Monticello Memorial Park in Charlottesville, Virginia.
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