George Payne Sr. was born in 1949. His mother found out about Louisville Deaf Oral School (now Heuser Hearing & Language Academy) through a newspaper article in 1952 and was then enrolled in 1953. At LDOS, he learned to speak, read and write in the carriage house behind the Woman’s Club of Louisville. The carriage house was the school’s second location after we outgrew the basement of the Woman’s Club.
George graduated from LDOS in 1956 and went on to George Tingley School in 1959, an elementary school for deaf children that has since closed. After Tingley, he went to Kentucky School for the Deaf from 1959 to 1969 before attending college at National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, NY. He moved back to Louisville in 1972 where he worked in photography at Fulltone Photo on Shelby St. George then became a mailman in 1992, working for USPS for 22 years before retiring on Oct. 31, 2014.
During his early years, he worked at the downtown USPS office and would occasionally deliver mail to the third LDOS location at 414 W. Ormsby. In 1995, he went to LDOS and spoke to the children about being a mailman. The children and teachers then went on a field trip to the downtown post office so George could show them around.
George’s son, George Jr., is VP at a local company and his daughter, Rachel, is an interpreter with KCDHH. He has two grandchildren.
George is grateful for LDOS for speech, language access and is especially thankful for the Woman’s Club for supporting the school for the past 75 years!