Name Charles Payne Years of service 1943–1945 | Siblings Madelyn Dunham | |
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Allegiance United States of America Relations Madelyn Lee Payne (sister)Stanley A. Dunham (brother-in-law)Stanley Ann Dunham (niece)Barack Obama (grandnephew) Died August 1, 2014, Chicago, Illinois, United States Spouse Melanie Payne (m. 1963–2014) Similar People Madelyn Dunham, Stanley Armour Dunham, Ann Dunham | ||
Charles Thomas Payne (February 1925 – August 1, 2014) was an American who served in the U.S. military during World War II as a member of the U.S. Army's 89th Infantry Division that liberated Ohrdruf, a sub-camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp. He was 20 years old. A brother of Madelyn Lee Payne Dunham, Charles was Barack Obama's great uncle and was mentioned in Obama's speeches, including the one given in 2009 commemorating the anniversary of D-Day.
Obama has often described Payne's role in liberating Ohrdruf forced labor camp. There was brief media attention when Obama mistakenly identified the camp as Auschwitz during the campaign. In 2009, Payne spoke about this experiences:
"Ohrdruf was in that string of towns going across, south of Gotha and Erfurt. Our division was the first one in there. When we arrived there were no German soldiers anywhere around that I knew about. There was no fighting against the Germans, no camp guards. The whole area was overrun by people from the camp dressed in the most pitiful rags, and most of them were in a bad state of starvation."
Payne appeared in the visitor's gallery at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, when his great-nephew was nominated for President. He was the assistant director of the University of Chicago Library. Payne died on August 1, 2014, aged 89.
Payne was longtime close friends and shared the same dormitory for six years with the former Vice President and Premier of the Republic of China (Taiwan), Dr. Lien Chan.