Gladys Payne

(From Parker Mortuary)

Gladys Antonia Hernandez-Guzman Payne was born on 16 October 1933, in Barcelona, Anzoátegui, Venezuela, to Ana Matilde Guzman-Guzman and Diego Manuel Hernandez-Guzman. Gladys was the elder of two sisters.

Gladys attended boarding school, and following the death of her mother, was sent off to finishing school along with sister, Maritza, and cousin, Margot, at the Charles Ellis Boarding School for Girls in West Chester PA, near Philadelphia.

During school, Gladys was known as “a conscientious student” who “has always done well in all her endeavors,” bookish, a lover of all aspects of French culture – a true Francophile. Later in life, after attending every available French class at Missouri Southern State College, she finished off her French education attending a semester at the prestigious Sorbonne Université in Paris.

But she was not all about books and academics. In her senior yearbook, she willed her “inexhaustible conversations”, which was a facetious reference to being known as “the quietest” in her class. Despite her alleged shyness, she was prophesied to “open a dance studio of her own and become president of the Universal Ricardo Montalban fan club”. Alas, neither of these came to pass, but it was at a weekly summer ball back in Venezuela where she met an unassuming American engineer by the name of Wallace Payne, a still wet-behind-the-ears graduate of Texas A&M University enjoying the good life in Venezuela on his first job after graduation in the newly discovered oil fields in the jungles there.

These weekly soirees were the social highlight of the community, enabling all the young bachelors to mingle in the community with a chance to meet and dance with the lovely señoritas. Gladys had once been first runner up in the Miss Anzoátegui beauty pageant.

It has not been revealed who noticed whom first, but the topic of discussion must have been business as Wally eventually hired Gladys as his stenographer, not that his administrative workload required it. But as was recalled years later, he liked seeing her gracing the outer office. Before Wally could propose, he had to gain approval from her father, Don Diego Hernandez-Guzman.

Placing pipeline in Venezuela required permission from the landowners to lay miles of pipe along property frontage, except for the entrance roads which required the pipe to be buried. At least one landowner did not approve and insisted that “all” the pipe fronting his property be buried. Wally insisted that his orders were to bury the pipes only at the roadways to the properties; the landowner vowed to talk to the governor. Shortly thereafter, Wally returned to bury the entire pipeline along that property.

The day came to “meet the parents”, in this case Gladys’s father Don Diego. Upon opening the door, after a pregnant pause, Don Diego said “…you!”, realizing he had met the persistent engineer. After much persuading, Gladys convinced her father that Wally was a loving man AND a great engineer doing his job. He consented and they were wed on 30 April 1954, in Barcelona, Venezuela.

Mama and Daddy led a mostly blissful life in the Mene Grande oil town of San Tome for eight years. Their first child, Jorge, was born sharing a birthday with her father in the year following his death. Following the tragic loss of two children (Diego, an infant, and Annelena, 13 months), and with another child on the way, Wally decided to move the family back to the US, finally settling in Carthage, MO, in January 1962. As her yearbook had predicted, Mama would continue to do well in all her endeavors. Gladys and Wally had three more children, Gregory, Paul, and Patricia, all born in the original Saint John’s hospital in Joplin.

Moving to the Midwest USA in the early ‘60s was a difficult transition for Mama, despite her education and fluency in four languages, and it was a proud day in 1972 when she gained her US citizenship.

While in Carthage, the family established a small farm, with several cows that provided a source of milk and cheese, skills that Mama instantly adapted to without ever revealing when or where she could have possibly learned them. She looked forward to the annual drive with Daddy to Tulsa every October to attend the opera. She organized the United Nations Club with local women from around the world and also served as Director of the local Birthright chapter.

Mama was quite the chef, with her native arepas and paella being her specialty, although her perennial cow tongue in cherry sauce split the family into pro and con camps. Her penmanship was exquisite, transforming handwritten recipes, bank checks, or any document she put pen to paper into works of art.

Mama was devout in her faith and strong in principle, raising her children as Roman Catholic, never missing a Sunday or feast day, and up until recent years remained an active parishioner of St. Peter’s Church in Joplin and a fixture of the second pew at 6 pm Mass. She served as extraordinary minister, lector, choir member, and PSR instructor. Gladys was a long-time member of the Daughters of St. Francis de Sales, spending many hours translating correspondence from its original French into English for their newsletter. She also served for many years as a member of St. John’s Hospital Auxiliary and for a time provided translation services for the local courts, taking the opportunity to offer her motherly advice to those finding themselves on the other side of the law. She recited the rosary every day since the loss of her daughter Annelena decades earlier.







Wallace died in 2014, just shy of their 60th wedding anniversary. Her sister, Maritza, passed away in 2023, and her dearest cousin, Margot, also passed in 2021. Mama survived as the last of her generation in the family. Her endeavors are now successfully completed while her legacy lives on through her children: Jorge Payne of East Lyme, CT; Gregory Payne of Bentonville, AR; Paul Payne of St. Louis, MO; and Patricia Payne Moore (Rick) of Joplin, MO; nine grandchildren: Christina Payne Earle (Cabot) of Hingham, MA; Jonathan Payne of Boston, MA; Andrea Moore Waggoner (Adam) of Joplin, MO; Katherine Moore of Joplin, MO; Nicole Moore of Overland Park, KS; Gabriela Moore of St. Louis, MO; Riley Payne of Rogers, AR (and his mother Ann Pekarek of Joplin, MO); Laken and Seagan Payne of Rogers, AR; and three great-grandchildren: Henry, Eliot, and Caroline.

In her final years, Mama was lovingly cared for by her very capable daughter Patricia and her four doting granddaughters, ending a journey of 91 years. She died peacefully in her sleep on 16 July 2025. Special thanks to her caregiver Toni, and the compassionate team from Gentiva Hospice, especially Ellie and Lori.

Dios te bendiga, Mama.