The Phabrice Montgomery Payne Memorial Scholarship scholarship was established by Lee Gayle Payne Lunsford to honor her mother in 2010.
Phabrice Arvilla Montgomery was born on June 5, 1903, in Lavon, Texas to parents, Arvilla (Villy) and Lee Olynthus (L.O.) Montgomery. After a short while her parents moved the family to Muskogee, Oklahoma. Her father's occupation was a supplier and builder of wooden oil rigs in Oklahoma's early oil industry.
Phabrice graduated from Oklahoma schools with a teaching degree by working a semester and then paying her way for classes the next semester, one semester at a time. She first used that degree in the small rural schools of that area. Later, Phabrice taught advanced placement classes in the Muskogee Public schools until the early 1920's when she and her sister, Eathul, decided to move to Fort Worth, Texas to pursue new careers. Phabrice worked for the General Electric Corporation as a home demonstration agent. She visited with appliance dealers in towns across Texas who were selling the first all electric refrigerators in order to offer classes in their use.
It was during one of these training sessions where she met her husband to be, Rex Gayle Payne, a proprietor of a hardware store in Center, Texas. One of the family stories is that upon becoming acquainted with each other, her first impression of him was that he was a rich merchant, and his impression of her was that she must be a good cook. After all she knew her way around those kitchen appliances. They later discovered that both of these impressions could not have been further from the truth.
Phabrice, who was also known as Monty, or Mrs. Rex, never did stay home and cook. She worked in the family hardware business along with her husband, gradually taking charge of the gift shop portion. Beginning in the late 1940's, she anchored a short daily news program on the local radio station, KDET, known as, The Community News, on which Payne & Payne Hardware was advertised. Mrs. Rex gradually became known as the lady to call when someone had important news to share. Payne's Community News is still in operation, having been continued by her late son, Mr. Vance Payne. Currently, it is broadcast by her grandson, Mr. Rob Payne.
Mrs. Rex taught elocution classes in which she coached local youths in the best manner in which to use their speaking voices. She also encouraged the memorization of the classics and of popular poetry and prose. The community benefitted greatly from her teaching experience as she used those skills serving as a troop leader for the local Girl Scouts and volunteering to teach Red Cross swimming classes. The locale for these lessons was not in a swimming pool as we might suppose today but rather in Carriker's Lake. Mrs. Rex also gave back to her community by serving as president of the Center Music Study Club and the Business and Professional Women's Club of Center, an organization that was dear to her heart. She was a member of the National Press Club.
Later, when her children enrolled in school and extracurricular activities, Mrs. Rex was very involved with many of their activities in which a need was perceived. She ran for the Center Independent School Board. She was the first woman candidate of those times to do so. She lost that race but helped pave the way for others with like minds to run for office in the future.
She saw the need, and with other parents, established the first Band Booster's Club in the Center schools, which helped raise money to purchase much-needed uniforms and other necessities. Mrs. Rex was also instrumental in initiating the creation of the Riders Roost after she saw that the community lacked a safe, chaperoned place for local teens to have fun. In addition, she and Mrs. Mattie Dellinger, helped organize and sponsor the first Center High School Homecoming, which, as they originally intended, was to be incorporated into a citywide homecoming.
Mrs. Rex was active in the First United Methodist Church of Center. She taught Sunday school classes and, along with her husband, sponsored the Methodist Youth Fellowship. She was also instrumental in securing a youth director for the young people's program when such a position was a rather new idea. Mrs. Rex also saw a need for an elevator at the church and was able to convince her fellow church members to support the idea. As a result, an elevator was installed in the church building.
Along with Mrs. Rex's activities and interests, she quietly helped young, deserving women in the community to further their education. Except for a remark that would occasionally reach the family's ears by a grateful recipient, the family would have never known of her endeavors in this regard. In 1980 Mrs. Rex Payne was presented with the Distinguished Service Award by the Shelby County Chamber of Commerce. This award was bestowed upon Mrs. Payne because when she saw a need, she took action.
“‘Monty,’ or ‘Big Monty,’ as she was called, was a loving mother and a fun grandmother, ever family-oriented and supportive of the accomplishments of each family member. It is an honor to establish the Phabrice Montgomery Payne endowed scholarship at Panola College in her memory,” said Mrs. Lee Gayle Payne Lunsford. “I hope that it will continue her legacy of providing care and support to deserving young women in their endeavors. Her personal goal was to help young women gain their own education for the benefit of their future as self-supporting, contributing members of their communities.”
The Phabrice Montgomery Payne Memorial Scholarship will be awarded annually. This scholarship was established by Lee Gayle Payne Lunsford to honor her mother through the creation of a scholarship to assist students at Panola College who are sophomores and graduates of Center High School. The selection of the recipients will be made in the spring of each year.