Due to poverty that required him to work to help support the family, he did not graduate high school until age 23.
[1] He spent one year at National University School of Law in Washington, D.C., working at a government job to pay his tuition.
[1] Payne then performed two years of missionary work for the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
[1] He served many years in the New Mexico Legislature as a senator and state representative, and as Speaker of the House from 1945 to 1947.
[2] On February 18, 1963, at the recommendation of New Mexico United States Senator Clinton Presba Anderson,[1] Payne was nominated by President John F. Kennedy to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico vacated by Judge Carl Hatch.