Free Republic

CHAPEL HILL, NC - An NC woman revealed in the last line of her obituary last week that she was the great-aunt of the President of the United States. Margaret Payne, age 87, of Chapel Hill died last Wednesday at a retirement community. She was the younger sister of Barack Obama’s grandmother, who actually did most of the parenting for the future president when he was growing up in Hawaii. Payne was a professor of nutrition who taught at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and subsequently at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1980 to 1990....

ORLANDO, Fla. (ELCA) -- Under the theme of "Journeying Together Faithfully," the Rev. Margaret G. Payne, bishop of the ELCA New England Synod, invited the voting members and visitors of the 2005 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to wrestle a blessing from their fears and life struggles in a Bible study Aug. 10. The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the ELCA, is meeting here August 8-14 at the World Center Marriott and Convention Center. About 2,300 people are participating, including 1,018 ELCA voting members. The theme for the biennial assembly is "Marked with...