William Anderson Payne, 93, a native Alexandrian, died Friday, March 13, 2015. He retired from Southern Railway after 42 years of service, was an active member of The Fraternal Order of Eagles and was a member of the Andrew Jackson Lodge #120, A.F.&A.M.
In her 2009 nomination of her dad for Living Legends honors, his daughter Janet Payne Cashion wrote: “Alexandrian Bill Payne was born in the blizzard of 1922 in an apartment above the Burke & Herbert Bank at King and S. Fairfax Streets. He graduated from George Washington High School in 1941, where he achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Cadet Corp. While just a teenager, in 1940, he began his career shoveling coal into the engine of a freight train for The Southern Railway – the company that employed him for 42 years, until his retirement in 1982. Bill was promoted to Road Foreman of Engineers towards the end of his tenure with the railroad. Just like his father, who was also an engineer for Southern, and his grandfather, who was a conductor, Bill took to railroading naturally — it was in his blood. Whether it was bringing passenger trains through Alexandria on their way down South to Lynchburg and beyond, or driving freight trains carrying a myriad of goods and supplies to the rest of the State, he always had one goal in mind — safety first. It was a career that he absolutely loved and he can recall each and every detail of every stop along the way.
“It was granddaughter Michele who gave him the nickname ‘Puffy’ after the children’s book about “The Little Engine that Could” — “puffed the little locomotive, and put itself in front of the great heavy train. As it went on the little engine kept bravely puffing faster and faster, ‘I think I can, I think I can, I think I can’."
Preceded in death by his wife, Margaret Martin Payne, he is survived by his daughters, Margaret Lee Allen and her husband, Paul, and Janet Payne Cashion and her husband, Ronald; granddaughter, Michele Lee Snoddy and her husband, John; granddaughter, Margaret Lee Cashion; great-grandson, Beau Snoddy, all of Alexandria, and his brother, Donald Payne of Colonial Beach, Va.
Funeral service will be 11 a.m., Saturday, March 21, 2015 at Christ Episcopal Church, 118 N. Washington St., Alexandria. Interment will follow in Bethel Cemetery. The family will receive friends 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Everly-Wheatley Funeral Home, 1500 W. Braddock Road, Alexandria.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Christ Episcopal Church. A memorial guest book may be found at www.everlywheatley.com.