Brad Payne laid to rest

Marine Cpl. Bradford Howard Payne wasn't comfortable walking in anyone's shoes other than his own.

His sister made that point clear as she spoke to the hundreds of mourners who gathered Saturday at Vaughn Forest Baptist Church in Montgomery for the funeral of the fallen Marine.

"He was a man who wanted to do his own thing," said Sharon Payne Barnes.

Barnes fought back tears as she spoke of her brother, who was killed Oct. 6 in Saqlawiyah, Iraq. On his third deployment, Payne had been in country for just five weeks when his convoy was hit by an improvised explosive device.

"We're not here to glorify Brad," Barnes said, "but how God used Brad to glorify his purpose."

Barnes related a story from her brother's younger years, when she and their father were driving him to school and he didn't have his shoes.

"You can wear mine," Barnes remembered her father telling her younger brother.

When the three stopped in front of the school, Payne got out of the car wearing his father's shoes -- which were several sizes too big.

"He looked back at us like, 'Why are you doing this?' " Barnes said. "But as I think about that story, Brad wasn't comfortable wearing someone else's shoes."

The Revs. Dr. Lawrence Phipps, pastor of Vaughn Forest Baptist, Dr. Rick Marshall, pastor of Eastern Hills Baptist, and Jack Kale, former pastor of Fort Deposit United Methodist, all spoke at the service.

"Brad searched to find meaning. He searched to find his place," Marshall said. "Brad was as patriotic a young man as I had ever met."

Kale, who met Payne shortly before he joined the Marines, said that the 24-year-old had developed a strong bond with the veterans at Fort Deposit United Methodist.

"They recognized a desire in Brad to serve the way they (had) served," he said.

Several veterans and active-duty Marine Corps, Navy, Army and Air Force personnel were present at the funeral and burial at Greenwood Cemetery.

During the 10.5-mile procession, Montgomery police stopped traffic at intersections where people stood with hands over their hearts. Others held small flags.

At the burial, members of Montgomery's Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marines fired a 21-gun salute into the cloudless sky. As a bugler played taps, Payne's wife, Erin, sobbed into the shoulder of her mother-in-law and veterans saluted.

In addition to his wife of two years, Payne is survived by his parents, W. Howard and Carol Payne of Pike Road, and sisters Sharon and Katherine.

Recalling a conversation he had earlier in the week with Erin Payne, Kale said, "It may be the most telling of what I know of Brad and shared with him: She said, 'I've never felt pain like this before, but it was worth it.' "

As the ceremony came to a close, family members rose from their seats and walked away, leaving the widow to lay one final hand on her husband's casket and mouth the words, "I love you so much."

From the Montgomery Advertiser

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