Minnie Grace Gilbert Payne died Friday, Nov. 12, 2010, at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. She was 97.

Mrs. Payne lived most of her life in Utica, where she was married to the late Rev. Johnny Price Payne, and she was a devoted wife and Christian. She was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star and the Carpenter United Methodist Church.

She was preceded in death by her parents, James Owen and Minnie Christine Nichols Gilbert; four brothers, John Wesley Gilbert, Henry Brewer Gilbert, Blanford Bryant Gilbert and James Everette Gilbert; and a sister, Ophelia Dorris Gilbert Chapman.

Survivors include one brother, Christian Leroy Gilbert of Utica; three nephews, Ray Gilbert and James Everette Gilbert of Utica, and William Lawrence Gilbert of Ridgeland; one niece, Joyce Christine Vance of Utica; and numerous great-nieces and great-nephews.

Special thanks are given to the doctors and employees of the Copiah Living Center in Crystal Springs, the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the Hardy Wilson Hospital in Hazlehurst.

Funeral services will be 11 a.m. Monday at the Carpenter United Methodist Church with the Revs. Bill Hayes and Harold Manning officiating. Interment will follow in the Carpenter Cemetery. Visitation will be Monday at 9 a.m. until the hour of the service.

Pallbearers will be Ray Gilbert Jr., Colby Gilbert, Eugene Payne, Roy Wilson, Scott Dooley and Earl Price.

Glenwood Funeral Home in Utica is in charge of arrangements.