HAROLD PAYNE

Funeral for Harold Gene Payne of Cape Girardeau will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at New Bethel Baptist Church. The Rev. Johnny Thomas will officiate. Burial will be in Fairmount Cemetery, with military rites conducted by the U.S. Air Force from Scott Air Force Base in Belleville, Ill.

Friends may call at Ford and Sons Sprigg Street Funeral Home from 4-8 p.m. Wednesday.

Payne, 55, died Friday, July 6, 2001, in a fire at his home.

He was born Aug. 14, 1945, in Brinkley, Ark., son of John and Amanda Elizabeth Betts Payne.

Payne was a graduate of Central High School. He was retired from the U.S. Air Force.

Survivors include two sons, Sammy and Ricky Casey of St. Louis; two daughters, Christina Ferguson of state of Wisconsin, Wanda Fly of Sikeston, Mo.; four brothers, J.C. Betts of Niles, Mich., Terry, Robert and Chris Payne of Cape Girardeau; five sisters, Ermalene "Jackie" Jenkins and Betty Davis of Cape Girardeau, Maybelle Whitby of Brinkley, Doris Harris of St. Louis, Joyce Mitchell of Atlanta, Ga.; and five grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents, a son, and a brother.