Bruce Ryburn Payne was born on February 18, 1874, in Catawba County, North Carolina.

[1] Payne was educated at the Patton School in Morganton, North Carolina, graduating in 1892.

[2] Payne served as the founding President of Peabody College in Nashville Tennessee from 1911 to 1937.

[1] Payne died of a heart attack on April 21, 1937, in Nashville, Tennessee.

[1] His funeral was conducted by Methodist Bishop Costen Jordan Harrell,[1] and he was buried at the Mount Olivet Cemetery on April 23, 1937.