Margaret Payne, 92, public school teacher

Margaret Payne, a retired public school teacher, died of heart failure Thursday at Blakehurst Retirement Community in Towson. She was 92 and earlier had lived in Northwood.

Mrs. Payne taught for 24 years in Somerset County public schools and was a former president of the Somerset County Teachers Association. She moved to Baltimore and taught seventh-grade subjects in the Baltimore County system, including what was then Parkville Junior High School.

Born Margaret Powell in Princess Anne on the Eastern Shore, she was a graduate of University of Maryland, College Park, where she also earned a master's degree in education.

A former president of the Garden Gate Club, she served on the board of the Presbyterian Home in Towson. She also was active in the Maryland State Retired Teachers Association, Eastern Shore Society and Baltimore Opera Guild. For many years she was a hostess for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's decorator show house.

A former member of Manokin Presbyterian Church in Princess Anne, she belonged to First and Franklin Presbyterian Church in downtown Baltimore.

Her husband, Robert J. Payne, died in 1962.

Services were held Monday.

She is survived by a nephew, Robert T. Powell of Princess Anne.