Customers, suppliers and even his competitors seemed to form high opinions of Howard Payne, founder of Howard Payne Co., a northeast Atlanta store specializing in high-end appliances.
Mr. Payne's success in business was built on his integrity, said Carl Cohen, a sales representative for HADCO, a Suwanee distributor of appliances. People could immediately sense his earnestness and forthrightness, Mr. Cohen said.
"Howard was my customer, but he also was my good friend," he said. "To know him was to be a better person. He was a righteous man, a man of God, but he didn't wear it on his sleeve."
Charlie Sewell of Sandy Springs, founder of Sewell Appliance, was a friendly competitor.
"Howard was always upfront with his customers. They could count on his word," Sewell said. "As for our relationship, if I was out of a product and needed it quickly and he had it, he'd let me have it -- and vice versa."
Mr. Payne founded his store 35 years ago.
"Back then, Dad had to do it all -- handle appliance sales, then do the deliveries and installation," said his son, Jeff Payne of Loganville. "Our staff and our showroom have expanded since then. We've moved three times to larger quarters, but always staying within the Embry Hills shopping center."
The store is now a three-generation business. "Dad retired in 2000. My brother Jon and I are now co-owners of the store, and four of Dad's grandsons work here," Jeff Payne said.
Howard David Payne, 87, of Doraville, died Tuesday at his son Jeff's home in Loganville of complications of Alzheimer's disease. His funeral will be at 11 a.m. Friday at Briarlake Baptist Church. Tom M. Wages Funeral Service, Snellville Chapel, is in charge of arrangements.
Mr. Payne's family has long considered him patriarch of their clan, Jeff Payne said. "Fifty-eight years ago he started a tradition of a family Christmas Eve party, and it got so big over the years we've had to hire a hall to hold everybody. This year we had it at the reception hall at Christian Towers in Decatur. We didn't count heads, but usually 80 to 100 relatives show up."
On several occasions, Mr. Payne traveled to Bolivia with his longtime friend, L.T. Everett of Dacula, a semi-retired missionary who spent many years in South America. "When we set up a youth camp and were thinking about a name for it, Howard suggested we call it Camp David, in honor of his son who was killed in the Vietnam War, so that's what we did," Mr. Everett said.
"Back in the 1960s, Howard and I and two other fellows formed a quartet we called the Baldheaded Four," Mr. Everett said. "We'd sing in nursing homes and at church affairs. Once a fellow told us he'd like us to sing at his funeral -- he wanted people to cry at his sendoff."
Aside from the many years Mr. Payne devoted to Forrest Hills Baptist Church as deacon and Sunday school teacher and the enjoyment he drew from the company of his grandchildren, Mr. Payne didn't have many outside interests. "It wasn't that Dad was a workaholic," Jeff Payne said. "It's just that he really liked working the floor at our showroom and engaging with the customers."
Survivors also include his wife, Rowena Payne; another son, Jon Payne of Loganville; two daughters, Susan Wooten of Loganville and Sally Hunt of Grayson; three stepsons, Wayne Carey of Tucker, Steve Carey of Atlanta and Greg Carey of Lawrenceville; a stepdaughter, Joan Bathanti of Boone, N.C.; five sisters, Thelma Green of Tucker, Louise McMahon of Morrow, Ruth Anderson of Peachtree City, Betty Turner of Dallas, Texas, and Ginny Payne of Decatur; 14 grandchildren, seven step-grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
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