Elizabeth Anne Payne, 82
December 19, 1943 – February 24, 2025
OXFORD, MS – Elizabeth Anne Payne passed physically from this earth on February 24, 2025. Born December 19, 1943 in her grandmother’s home in Itawamba County, Mississippi, she was the daughter of Albert Dauley “A.D.” and Ruth Hawkins Payne. She is survived by her daughter Conwill Cox and husband Brett Cox, her grandsons Gabriel Cook and Walker Cox of Oxford, her sisters, Glenda Rea (widow of Jimmy L. Rea) of Plantersville, Mississippi, and Bonnie Davidson and husband Glen Davidson of Tupelo, Ken Rutherford, her husband of over 25 years and his children Jason Rutherford and Kathryn Rutherford Wilkinson, and her nephews, Chip Rea, Brandon Rea, Glen Davidson, Jr., and Gregory Davidson.
A native of Nettleton, Mississippi, Elizabeth spent her formative years in the Shiloh Methodist Church, which her great-grandfather had helped to found. She was active in church work as a youth and was elected President of the National Council of the Methodist Youth Fellowship while in college. Elizabeth was selected by the Methodist Church to be a summer lobbyist in Washington, D. C. for the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
After graduating from Nettleton High School and Mississippi State College for Women (now Mississippi University for Women) in Northeast Mississippi, Elizabeth earned a Master of Theology degree from Perkins Seminary at Southern Methodist University and master’s and doctoral degrees in history from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She became a renowned scholar in American women’s history as she taught at the University of Illinois, Northwestern University, the University of Arkansas, the University of Mississippi, and other colleges.
At the University of Arkansas Dr. Payne was the architect of a nationally acclaimed honors curriculum for the University’s Fulbright College H2P Honors program and became its director. In 1997 she moved back to Mississippi to become the Founding Director of the University of Mississippi’s Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, where she created an innovative program to attract and develop high performing students, especially those from Mississippi. Through the mentorship and coaching of Dr. Payne and her staff, her Honors College students were awarded prestigious scholarships from the Rhodes, the Truman, and other scholarship committees.
The honors program she created at the University of Mississippi Honors College was a key ingredient in the University’s approval for a chapter of the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa Honors Society. The legacy of Dr. Payne’s visionary leadership in creating a vibrant center of academic excellence at the University of Mississippi Honors College was later acclaimed when it was named by Reader’s Digest as one of the three best Honors Colleges in the nation.
Dr. Payne was honored as the first professor from the University of Mississippi to be selected as a Fellow at the National Humanities Center in North Carolina’s Research Triangle. The Center annually brought together scholars from all over the country to discuss their academic work. She was also awarded a Fulbright Fellowship as Visiting Professor for a year at Lucy Cavendish College at Cambridge University, England. In 2012 she received a Humanities Scholar Award from the Mississippi Humanities Council for her significant contribution to the Mississippi humanities.
An accomplished writer, Dr. Payne published four books on women’s history, including two volumes she edited for the “Mississippi Women’s History” series, which she and Dr. Martha Swain of Mississippi State created. The template for this women’s history series was adopted by the University of Georgia Press as a model and was used by historians in states throughout the South and Southwest. Elizabeth currently has another book on women’s history in the publication process. She also published numerous articles on women’s history and recorded an oral documentary of interviews of women from Northeast Mississippi about their personal history and life stories. This documentary is on deposit at the University of Mississippi Library.
Dr. Payne was a co-founder of the Delta Women’s Writers Group, which created a means for established women historians from southern states to assist and mentor younger women historians with their writing projects and scholarly career advancement. She was also a co-founder of the Mississippi Women’s History Project to encourage scholarship on the history of women in their state. She was an active member of the Southern Historical Association and was often a panelist at its conferences.
Elizabeth was a devoted member of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Oxford. The underlying themes of her life were Biblical—Love the Lord with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. Elizabeth was one of those who absorbed God’s grace and shared it with those around her. An avid believer in helping those in need and others less fortunate than she, for many years Elizabeth could be found in Oxford each fall promoting the sale of quilting products of the “Tutwiler Quilters” from Tutwiler, Mississippi, whose primary income came from such sales. She also strongly supported local charities and national charities such as Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, and The Nature Conservancy. To assist Northeast Mississippi students who need financial assistance to attend college, Dr. Payne established and supported a scholarship in her name at the University of Mississippi.
Not only was she dedicated to her teaching, Dr. Payne was also dedicated to the postgraduate success of her students, many of whom remained in communication with her long after their graduation. As former student Dr. Jillian McClure said, “Elizabeth was a brilliant, formidable academic who left her imprint through mentorship and scholarship. She will be missed.” Elizabeth was a lifelong collector of an eclectic range of people whose friendship she sincerely valued. She will be remembered for the love she gave, the consciousnesses she expanded through her leadership and teaching, the generous energy she invested in the world, and her remarkable resilience.
Memorials may be made to the Elizabeth Anne Payne Scholarship Endowment at the University of Mississippi Foundation, www.umfoundation.com, 406 University Avenue, Oxford, MS 38655, or your favorite charity.
A funeral service and reception will be held Saturday, March 8, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Oxford. Participating priests will be Rt. Rev. Duncan Gray, III, Rev. Taylor Moore and Rev. Jennifer Southall. Efforts will be made to livestream the service, but those arrangements are not complete. There will be an earlier private burial for Elizabeth in Itawamba County near her birthplace.
Please follow the funeral home link above for further information, or to send online condolences or memorial gifts.
