Aliene H. Payne died peacefully on the evening of February 9, 2026. She was 97.

Aliene was born and raised in Naples, New York to Lloyd O. Harter and Celia Warner Harter. The family later moved to Canandaigua, where Aliene completed high school at Canandaigua Academy. It was there that she met her future husband, George A. Payne. They began dating after George returned from service in Japan during the Korean War and were married in 1954.

Aliene loved to sing and, along with a friend, appeared on television's Ted Mack's Amateur Hour in the early 1950s. She was a professional hairdresser in the early years of her marriage while George opened a new trucking company.

The couple built a home on West Main Street in Shortsville, where they raised three children and lived for 44 years. During that time, Aliene stepped away from hairdressing and devoted herself to her roles as mother, supportive wife, and bookkeeper for the family trucking business.

Aliene was active in the Canandaigua First United Methodist Church, where she sang and taught Sunday School.

She had a great sense of humor and was loved not only by her children, but also by her Harter-family nieces and nephews, who affectionately called her "Auntie."

Aliene always supported George's businesses from Payne Trucking to Canandaigua Express to Shortsville Auto Parts. Then, at age 65 she decided to become a business owner herself and purchased an ice cream stand—her favorite treat—in Shortsville. She was known to many as "The Ice Cream Lady." She sold the store at 75 and "retired" to a life including travel, from England to Hawaii and Alaska to the Panama Canal.

Aliene loved her role in life as supporter of her husband. For her, it was the role of a lifetime. They traveled together, went to NAPA events, had regular weekly breakfast groups, were active in Rotary Club and the Ontario County Fair. They traveled around the country to visit children and grandchildren and she loved nothing more than "going for a ride" anywhere you wanted to take her, for an afternoon. George and Aliene loved their log home and spent their final years there. Her supporting role was unwavering. Her final act was caring for George, in their home, in the last months of his life in 2024.

Aliene was preceded in death by her husband of 70 years, George A. Payne. She is survived by her children: Roger and his wife Lisa Rogovin Payne of Leawood, Kansas; Leslie of Canandaigua, New York; and Patricia of Irondequoit, New York; her grandchildren, Jordan Payne Hay (Colin), Ross Payne, Taylor Payne (Dennis Cornwell), and Jessica Cropo (Ralph); and her great-grandchildren, Griffin and Tenley Hay, R.J. and Jake Cropo, and Sydney Payne-Cornwell. She was preceded in death by her brothers and sisters-in-law, Carl and Joanne Harter and Julian and Helen Harter, her parents and by her daughter-in-law, Cathryn Troyer Payne.

A private family burial will take place at Pioneer Cemetery in Shortsville. A Celebration of Life will be held in the spring.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made, as you are able, to the Red Jacket Rotary Club or the George A. Payne Scholarship Program c/o The Ontario County Fair Society.

Red Jacket Rotary Club

P.O. Box 101

Manchester, NY 14504

Ontario County Fair

PO Box 324

Canandaigua NY 14424

Condolences may be sent to P.O. Box 291, Shortsville, NY 14548.

To share a memory or express condolences online, please visit www.fullerfh.com.