Name:
Byron Dean Payton
Rank:
Civilian
Serial Number:
Unit:
Date of Death:
1980-03-14
State:
Texas
Cemetery:
Rucker Community Cemetery, Troup, Smith County, Texas, USA
Plot:
Row:
Grave:
Decoration:
Comments:
Byron Dean Payton, of Troup, TX, was born in 1963. He was a Light Middleweight boxer and member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Boxing Team that was killed in a plane crash near Warsaw, Poland, on March 14, 1980. That day, the team was traveling from New York to Warsaw to compete in two dual events in Cracow and Katowice when the Polish IL-62 jetliner went down just half a mile from Warsaw's Okecie Airport. Eighty-seven people, all passengers and crew, including 22 members (14 boxers and 8 staff members) of the US boxing team, died.