Eddie Lee Payne:  

More about meHaving retired June 4, 2011 as the English II teacher and chess coach from the local High School, I am in massive search for just a drop of that "free time" I was told that I would have. I am so busy now that I need to get a job so I can relax. I chose not to pursue a Master's Degree and teach in the local college, but rather to work about my farm and enjoy life. In this last school year, my students broke all school records on the TAKS test. 70 of 129 students were ABOVE EXPECTATIONS on long composition, with 16 scoring the "walk on water" level 4 score, the highest. 118 short answers from these students were rated ABOVE AVERAGE, with 7 of them making the "nearly impossible" score of 3, the highest. The average in Texas is one 3 score on short answer for every 1,000 students taught, and I only had 129 students, not 7,000. In 2010, my chess team repeated as FIRST in Region III (North Texas), SECOND in the Texas Scholastic Chess Tournament, Junior Varsity, and FIFTH in the National Chess Championship, Seniors. Nineteen trophies were won during the year from the tournaments and chess matches. We lost only ONE chess match with other schools. When I taught in WV, back when dinosaurs had just gone extinct, my Northfork High School team won the WV state championship, won the Southern WV Chess League five of six years, and had three undefeated years of 22 matches per year. With a friend, who is a chess master, I plan to launch a chess club for adults in Mexia shortly. I am happily married to the most intelligent and beautiful woman in the world. She is a hospice nurse, which tells you much about her heart and love for others. She is a top notch seamstress, and I have provided her with a 24X16 sewing building with a 15" vaulted ceiling in front and a loft storage area at the back. I even put a bathroom in it for her convenience. She does professional embroidery and makes quilts, clothing, and gifts. She sews from her computer, sometimes sewing a picture IN COLOR in thread onto a T-shirt. Both of us are avid readers, and my wife bought me a new Kindle for Father's Day as a retirement gift. It will come in handy on our upcoming three week trip to northern Italy. Did I mention that I really love this lovely, compassionate lady? (UPDATE: The Kindle now has over 500 books stored on it; Italy was amazingly wonderful---what great food and wine and so many walled cities, fortresses, and castles to see. My wife and I are reading through the entire Lee Chld books and have fallen in awe of Jack Reacher, the protagonist.) We have three children: Lt. Col. Brian Andrew Payne, who just moved from Fort Wainwright, AK after being deployed to Afghanistan; to Ft. Leavenworth, where he will oversee instruction on Counter-Insurgency; Chaplain (Capt) Ashley Todd Payne, stationed with his family in Vicenza, Italy after two tours of Iraq; and Rebekah Kateryn Owen, previous owner of The Children's Shop in Corsicana, TX, who sold it to launch a network marketing company and has already achieved a management position there. All three children have Master's Degrees. Both boys have double Masters and are beginning their doctorate programs this coming year. We have nine grandchildren plus one who died of tetrology of philot at 28 months. I still cry ...Expand for more