In the 1930s and ‘40s, New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s boundless energy and enthusiasm made him a nationally known – and immensely popular – figure. Often called the “Little Flower,” the English translation of his Italian first name, LaGuardia was elected New York mayor in 1934 and was twice re-elected before deciding in 1945 that he wouldn’t run again.
A bit more than a decade later, Huntingtonians would enjoy applying the same nickname to one of their own mayors – Walter W. Payne.
Payne, who served as Huntington’s mayor from 1949 to 1952, not only exhibited the same brand of energy and enthusiasm as LaGuardia, he also was built much along the same lines. Both were short in stature and stocky in build. The comparison with the popular New York mayor was obvious.
Payne hated sitting behind his desk at City Hall. He loved to get out of the office and move around. With a seemingly limitless store of energy, he loved to be in the thick of things, whether it was a late-night debate at City Hall or a three-alarm fire somewhere. As mayor, he felt a special kinship with the Huntington Fire Department. He frequently donned the heavy coat, rubber boots and distinctive helmet of a fireman and chased the fire trucks to the scene of a blaze.
Payne’s father and grandfather before him were in the milling business and as a young man the future mayor traveled much of the United States as a salesman for a milling company. Coming to Huntington in 1910, he opened a feed store on 14th Street West, which he successfully operated until he retired in 1948.
Over the years, he became very interested in the Boys’ and Girls’ Club of Huntington. And so, when he sold his feed business to a national firm, he donated his brick store building to the club.
On his death in 1981, the Huntington Advertiser eulogized him as one of Huntington’s “most colorful, most entertaining, most respected and most widely known citizens.”
