(Payne) (Lumpkins), Charlene (Char or Charlie to her friends, Mammaw to her beloved grandchildren), 67 years of age, born in Santa Ana, California on March 4, 1950, finally succumbed to her two-decade long battle with respiratory failure on February 8, 2018 in Houston, Texas, while surrounded by family. The daughter of Glenwood Payne and Rita Gertrude Payne, she was preceded in death by her brothers, Darrell Glenn Payne and Ronald Ward Payne, and is survived by her sons, Michael Doyle Jennings, of Houston, Texas and Steven Daniel Lumpkins of Cypress, Texas, as well as her daughter-in-law Kerry Mayfield Jennings, daughter-in-law Gale Harvey Jennings, daughter-in-law Jennifer Jardin Lumpkins and grandchildren Courtney Blake Jennings, 23; Jacob Ryan Jennings, 22; Madeline Grace Lumpkins, 12; and Cooper Alexander Lumpkins, 10.
For most of her life she stood just over 5 feet tall and on average weighed less than 100 lbs. But if you were lucky enough to know her, you immediately thought of her when you heard quotes such as “it’s not the size of the dog in the fight that matters, it’s the size of the fight in the dog” or Shakespeare’s “And though she be but little, she is fierce.”
Her family will be forever grateful to the surgeons, pulmonologists, nurse coordinators and the entire lung transplant team at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, for their excellent care, as well as to the anonymous donor, and their family, for the gift which extended her life by 14 years.
Services: Per Charlene’s request, she will be laid to rest with her mother, two brothers and nephew, Darren James Payne, at St. Matthew Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri, following a Catholic Mass at Cure of Ars Catholic Church (670 S. Laclede Station Rd.) at 10 a.m. on Saturday, February 17, 2018. There will also be a viewing at Kutis Affton Chapel (10151 Gravois Road) on Friday February 16, 2018 from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. All friends, family, and Coca-Cola stock holders, who are surely in mourning, are invited to attend. Prayers for her eternal soul are solicited.