Lafayette G. Payne was wearing this ribbon and representing both Claiborne County as County Judge and Payne Brothers when he died. As I had previously thought that it was at a Merchants Trade Meeting in 1924.  It appears that it was at another meeting that he died as stated in the death certificate found on Find A Grave. It was in Richmond, Virginia that he passed away. I knew that it was while on a business trip but it was about eight months after the Trade Meeting noted by the ribbon below. He died on Nov. 5, 1924. Rumors of first one thing and another spread for many years following until finally in the 1940's as you can see he was not even mentioned as one of the founders of Payne Ford Motor Company in this 1948 History.  My family was forced to use the name Yoakum as my grandmother's married name because of rumor that her marriage many many years before with Daniel Cawood Yoakum had never leagally been annuled.  *See Below.

Knoxvilel Trade Meeting

Attention All Descendants
of Lafayette G. Payne
I have located among my records the original probate Will and Testament of Mattie Livesay Payne Yoakum Yes I said Yoakum. I had made an assumption that our Grandmother Payne, widow of Judge L.G. Payne had married Daniel C. Yoakum before their marriage in 1901. This original document seems to disprove this and brings up the question of the annulment of Grandmother Payne's marriage to Daniel C. Yoakum.
Uncle L.G. (Fate) Payne left several hours of recorded history to me and does say that her marriage was during the time after he left in 1933 to work for T.V.A. Also the fact that my grandmother's brother, Ben Livesay, Jr. and his family lived in Daniel Cawoods son's house while he was in the Navy serving in WWII seem to indicate that the family were close in the 1940's. The same week the Duncan/Cawood Hotel burned in New Tazewell the Yoakum house was also gutted by fire.


A picture of my Grandfather and Grandmother, Lafayette G. Payne and Mattie Alice Livesay Payne (not Yoakum) not too long before he died in 1924.

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