Frederick G. Payne (courtesy of Maine State Museum)
Frederick G. Payne (1904-1978) a Senator from Maine; born in Lewiston on July 24, 1904. He attended the public schools of Lewiston and the Bentley School of Accounting and Finance in Boston. During early school days he worked as a newsboy, usher and doorman in a theater, and as a reporter for a weekly newspaper. He engaged in automobile and farm machinery sales and theater auditing and managing 1925-1935. He was an industrial consultant from 1936 to 1940, and Mayor of Augusta from 1935 to 1941.
An unsuccessful Republican candidate for nomination for governor of Maine 1940, he became Maine Commissioner of Finance and Director of Budget (1940-1942).
During the Second World War, Payne entered the United States Air Force in 1942 as a captain and served until inactivated to the Reserves in 1945 as a lieutenant colonel. He returned to civilian life as the business manager of the Waldoboro Garage Company from 1945 until 1949.
Frederick G. Payne (courtesy Maine State Archives)
He served as Governor of Maine (1949-1952) after which he served as a Republican in the United States Senate from January 3, 1953, to January 3, 1959. He was unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1958.
A trustee of Bentley School of Accounting and Finance, he was also an industrial consultant and district manager of Walsh Engineers, Inc.
Payne resided in Waldoboro where he died June 15, 1978, with interment in German Lutheran Cemetery.
Additional resources
Frederick G. Payne Congressional Biography: https://bioguideretro.congress.gov/Home/MemberDetails?memIndex=p000150 (accessed January 5, 2021)
*Kennebec Journal, Augusta, June 16, 1978.
*Modern Maine. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1951, Vol. 3, pp. 6-7.
Payne, Frederick G. 200th anniversary old German church and meeting house, Waldoboro, Maine. Waldoboro, Me. Ladies Auxiliary: Trustees of the German Protestant Society of Waldoboro, Maine. 1972?
Payne, Frederick G. U.S. Senator Frederick G. Payne papers, 1952-1958. Maine State Archives. (Papers of a United States Senator from Maine. Included are memos from Merton Henry to Frederick Payne, photographs, newsletters, press releases, schedules, newspaper clippings, subject files from his term as United States Senator, and materials from his 1958 re-election campaign.)
Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, Vol. 2
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*Cited in Friends of the Blaine House at http://blainehouse.org/governors(accessed April 25, 2011) (accessed April 25, 2011)