Charles T. Payne | |
|---|---|
 Payne greets his grandnephew PresidentBarack Obama inColleville-sur-Mer, France, on the 65th anniversary ofD-Day. | |
| Birth name | Charles Thomas Payne |
| Born | February 16, 1925 Peru, Kansas, U.S. |
| Died | August 1, 2014(2014-08-01) (aged 89) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Service | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1943–1945 |
| Rank | Private |
| Unit | 89th Infantry Division |
| Known for | Maternal granduncle of U.S. presidentBarack Obama |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
| Spouse(s) | Melanie Payne |
| Relations |
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| Other work | University of Chicago Library |
Charles Thomas Payne (February 16, 1925 – August 1, 2014) was an American librarian and soldier. A member of theObama family, he was the brother ofMadelyn Payne Dunham and granduncle of former U.S. presidentBarack Obama.
DuringWorld War II, Payne served as a member of theU.S. Army's89th Infantry Division[1][2] that liberatedOhrdruf, a sub-camp of theBuchenwald concentration camp.[3][4][5]
His military service was often mentioned in Obama's speeches, including the one given in 2009 commemorating the anniversary ofD-Day.[6][7] During the2008 presidential election, there was brief media attention when Obama mistakenly identified the camp he helped liberate asAuschwitz instead of Ohrdruf.[8] In 2009, Payne spoke about this experience:
Ohrdruf was in that string of towns going across, south ofGotha andErfurt. Our division was the first one in there. When we arrived there were no German soldiers anywhere around that I knew about. There was no fighting against the Germans, no camp guards. The whole area was overrun by people from the camp dressed in the most pitiful rags, and most of them were in a bad state of starvation.[9]
After the war, Payne earned a degree in chemical engineering fromKansas State University and worked as an engineer before pursuing studies at theUniversity of Chicago'sGraduate Library School.[10] At the university, he shared a dormitory and developed a longtime friendship withLien Chan, the futurevice president andpremier ofTaiwan.[11]
Payne joined the staff of theUniversity of Chicago Library in 1964, serving as the assistant director from 1975 to 1992.[7] Meanwhile, Obama taughtconstitutional law at the university'slaw school from 1992 to 2004. Payne attended the2008 Democratic National Convention, where his grandnephew was nominated for president.[12]
Payne died on August 1, 2014, aged 89.[13][14]
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