Ilse Payne

Ilse Payne, née Porombka, died on March 5, 2026, at the age of 92. She is remembered with love by her husband of 68 years, William Bogart Payne; her daughter Karen Payne and son-in-law Mike of New Hampshire; her son Eric Payne and daughter-in-law Marie of Virginia; her granddaughter Sophia Payne of Virginia; her cousin Hanne Auffenberg of Düsseldorf; and her nine cherished nieces and nephews.

Born in Cologne, Ilse carried a deep and enduring love for her German heritage. The influence of her parents, Reinhold Porombka, a teacher and principal, and Charlotte, née Grüss, along with her sister Evelotte Rafferty, whom she later followed to America, nurtured in her a lifelong appreciation for nature, theater, music—especially classical—art, and good literature. After completing business school, she worked as a German-English-French translator at Leybold Manufacturing, saving diligently to buy passage on the MS Berlin to visit her sister, a war bride living in the United States. There she embraced her new life and, on a blind date, met the man who would become her husband.

Ilse found great joy as a work-from-home mother, listening to her children’s stories each day after school. In the 1960s she continued translating technical documents, patents, and manuals from home for companies such as PPG and U.S. Steel. Her keen eye for language led her to proofreading and wordsmithing, and later she taught German at Inlingua Language School in downtown Pittsburgh. She formed many lasting friendships through her involvement in Multiple Sclerosis support groups, German clubs, and paperweight collector circles, first in Pennsylvania and Texas, and finally in their retirement home in Lewes, Delaware, overlooking Love Creek.

Having lived with multiple sclerosis since her fifties, Ilse faced increasing physical challenges with remarkable grace and determination. She refused to let the disease erase her smile or diminish her sense of a life well lived, and she became an inspiration for her husband’s dedicated advocacy for accessibility in Delaware. As a child in 1945, she and her mother had been refugees fleeing the war in Silesia, enduring bombed trains and long journeys on foot to reach the American zone. Those memories left her with a tender heart that ached for those suffering in current world conflicts. In her memory, donations may be made to organizations that feed children in need.