William C. Payette; Retired News Executive With UPI

William C. Payette, a longtime executive with United Press International and United Features Syndicate who headed UPI’s Los Angeles bureau in the 1940s, has died at the age of 75.

Payette died of cancer Thursday at his Dallas home.

After graduating from the University of Southern California, Payette joined United Press, one of the forerunners of UPI, in 1936 and established the first radio Teletype delivery of news to South America and the first daily overseas transmission of news pictures.

He also organized Movietone News.

He was former national president of Sigma Delta Chi, president of press clubs in Los Angeles, Dallas and New York and a member of the Overseas Press Club.

Payette was Southwest division manager for UPI from 1961 to 1968, when he was named president of United Features in New York. In 1978, he became chairman of United Media, the parent firm of United Features and Newspaper Enterprise Assn. He retired in 1979.

Among the stories Payette covered were the first U.S. airliner hijacking, in El Paso in 1961, and Hurricane Carla. He also helped direct UPI’s coverage of President Kennedy’s assassination.

Payette is survived by his wife, Virginia McPherson Payette, a former syndicated columnist with United Features, a daughter, a son and six grandchildren.