Minnie Payne is not your regular nonagenarian!
For starters, her eyes still work, and she uses them to craft great inspirational stories and feature writing. Towards the end of 2023, Payne, who lives in College Station, earned her master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from the University of North Texas.
Her age was evident, but she had support from her family. Her 23-year-old grandson escorted her across the stage, pride written on his face.
According to the university’s spokesman, the achievement makes her the oldest documented student at UNT to complete her coursework. An honor even Payne herself finds difficult to believe.
“It’s still sort of surreal,” Payne said.
Payne was born and raised in Pelzer, South Carolina, about 16 miles south of Greenville. Her parents were only partially literate, and they made a living as textile workers.
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“I lived in a very small world,” Payne said. “There was one movie (theater), one drugstore, one post office, one service station, one grocery store.”
She graduated from high school in 1950 and attended junior college until she got a job as a clerk at a real estate firm. She tied the knot with her late husband, Dale, in 1961 and then worked as a South Carolina Industrial Commission court reporter.
Thanks to her husband’s job, their family often had to move. This meant they got to stay in places like Jackson, Mississippi, and Carrollton, Texas, where they resided for over 30 years. In her younger years, Payne was a stay-at-home mom for her two children, but she also did some work.
She was a substitute teacher and even worked for 30 years as a transcriptionist and word processor. None satisfied her until she turned to journalism. She did not let the fact that she was in her late sixties stop her.
Payne enrolled at Texas Woman’s University and took advantage of a particular program. It allows TWU, UNT, and Texas A&M University-Commerce students to take courses at all three universities.
“The journalism program was being phased out, and that’s really what I wanted to major in,” Payne said. “There were two journalism courses and electives left. I was allowed to take three journalism courses and one business course at UNT.”
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She graduated from TWU in 2006 with her bachelor’s in general studies. Then, she eventually continued her academic career at UNT. Unfortunately, the pandemic struck while she was at UNT, temporarily halting things.
She took online courses, which then became in-person meetings. It did not take long for Payne to start missing the in-person classes.
“Several months passed, and my former adviser emailed me and told me that I could earn my diploma through the interdisciplinary studies program,” she said. “Of course, I jumped at the chance.”
The interdisciplinary studies program allows students to focus on different things, and she chose writing. It was something she enjoyed doing. She called it very “therapeutic.”
Payne likes covering topics that require research. She also enjoys writing inspirational stories. Pursuing a degree at UNT at her age was difficult, but she succeeded.
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Payne believes it is because she had a desire to do well. So she spent a lot of time studying. She now has a degree to show for it, but she’s not done yet.
“I made a big accomplishment, but I feel that I still have a lot of good living left to do,” she said.
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