Janice Smith Payne, 83, passed away on Friday, January 15, 2021 at Brookdale Senior Living Center in Johnson City, Tennessee. Ms. Payne was born on March 1, 1937 in Chattanooga, Tennessee to Samuel V. and Virginia M. Smith. She was a 1955 graduate of Chattanooga High School, and she obtained her B.A. from the University of Chattanooga in 1959, where she was a member of the Pi Phi sorority. In 1982 she earned her Masters in Elementary Administration from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Ms. Payne spent 38 years working for the Hamilton County Department of Education. She began her teaching career at James A. Henry Elementary, then she served at Pineville Elementary and Big Ridge Elementary. In 1991, she spent a year traveling throughout Tennessee as an evaluator for the Career Ladder program. In 1992, she became the Assistant Principal at Calvin Donaldson Elementary, and in 1994 she became the Principal of East Lake Elementary, where she remained until her retirement in 1997. Ms. Payne was a longtime member of Delta Kappa Gamma, the international society for women educators.