Joyce Wilmoth Duggins Payne
1926 - 2024
Joyce Wilmoth Duggins Payne
October 26, 1926 – August 29, 2024
The only child of Larnie G. and Bertha Slawter Duggins, Joyce loved growing up on her
parents’ tobacco farm beside Tom’s Creek in Surry County. She graduated from Pilot Mountain
High School in 1944, worked with war ration coupons, then attended Draughon Business College
in 1945, then became supervisor of accounting with Duke Power. She met and married Woodrow
Payne after his return from World War II. He died in 1976.
She later worked for Northwestern Bank, then AT&T Credit Union and Forsyth Technical
College. Joyce loved her work, but her life was centered in her home and family. Her greatest joy
was raising her two daughters. Strong, proud, and determined, she was a wonderful keeper of
history, entertaining her family and friends with tales of her idyllic childhood. She kept and
cherished her parents’ antique household items, tools, and other memorabilia, and had a strong
connection to the old farming life. She tended her husband and parents until their deaths.
She outlined Woody’s WWII service from N. Africa to his D-Day landing on Omaha Beach
and subsequent march through Europe, where he was wounded several times. She collected
genealogy of her and Woody’s families and could tell you the history and heritage of much of
Forsyth and Surry Counties.
She was a member of Mizpah Moravian Church as well as Cedar Hill Primitive Baptist
Church, where she will be buried. She was a charter member of the Tobaccoville History
Committee and long-time volunteer with the Shepherd’s Center. At Mizpah, she taught adult
Sunday School and clerked the Women’s Fellowship for decades. She was church treasurer during
the building of their sanctuary.
She is survived by her daughters Jan Neas of Advance, Rebecca Payne (David Castro) of
Lansing, Michigan, grandchildren, Matt Neas, Scott Neas (Kelly), Joseph Ryan, Molly Ryan
(Kevin Curtin), Nina Bozinov (Daniel) and great-grandchildren Ramzey and Rozlyn Neas, Quinn
and Casper Curtin and Maya, Eva, Elise, and Vivien Bozinov, Shane and Celine Lee and daughter
Lilly. Special thanks to her many friends and relatives whom she loved until her death.
Interment will be at Cedar Hill Primitive Baptist Church at a later date.