Edgar Alwin Payne (1883-1947) – In Pursuit of Poetic Grandeur, by Elaine Adams, California Art Club Newsletter, Winter 2012
Edgar Alwin Payne was born on March 1, 1883, possibly in the rural small town of Washburn, Missouri, somewhere near Cassville in Barry County located in the southwest part of the state near the Arkansas border. As Barry County did not record official births until 1910, the actual location of Payne’s birth is not known. Essentially, Edgar Payne’s childhood was spent in the Ozark Mountains where he was raised as a farm boy and surrounded by the great outdoors. Edgar Payne’s father, John Hill Payne, was a descendent of the Paynes and Herefords of Virginia.
