Today marks the 65th anniversary of the invasion of France by Allied forces during World War II, and there are a handful of its heroes still among us.

This is the story of one of them.

Grover Payne was standing in historic Zion Cemetery near Baileyton, surrounded by names that rekindled more memories than there would be time to talk about.

It was dark and threatening, but the old soldier from D-Day and beyond had just one more story to tell before the rain came.

"See all these names?" he asked. "They all mean so much to me, and they all amounted to something. But I never did. I never amounted to much."

For as long as anyone can remember, that's how Grover Payne has always been: modest beyond measure.

"He is the most modest, yet one of the brightest people I have ever known," said Sam Dobson, of Chuckey, Grover's son-in-law.

"He is a perfectionist, if there is such a thing," Dobson went on. "It has been one of the real joys of my life to get to know this man and his remarkable story of courage and tenacity during the war.

"After getting to know him, it is easy to understand how we won World War II and how his generation went on to be labeled 'The Greatest Generation.' "

Grover and his brother, Oscar, both survived the landing during the invasion of France at Normandy in 1944, but Oscar was killed just over a month later, and it would be several months later before word reached Grover of his brother's death.

"We were in different outfits, scattered all over France, and with the world being turned upside down by the war and all, it is nothing short of a miracle that I ever heard about Oscar's death at all," Grover said.

The two brothers had grown up together on a dairy farm in Greene County, never dreaming that they would both someday be part of the largest amphibious invasion in history.

"Our family milked 50 cows by hand back in those days," Grover said. "It was back before electric milkers came along, but we did it, and we got along really well at it.

"We had a contract with what was called the Soldier's Home up in Johnson City at that time. We hauled them 50 gallons of fresh milk every day."

The rigors of those endless milkings and long days of pitching hay would later serve Sgt. Grover Payne very well.

"The days during the invasion were so long and mixed up that I honestly can't tell you what day I went ashore," he said.

"It was either the seventh or eighth of June, several hours after the initial invasion on the sixth. In that kind of situation, it is impossible to sort it all out all these years later.

"Oscar's outfit, the 30th Infantry Division, went in on Omaha Beach on the sixth. I was in the 4th Infantry Division, and we went in on Utah Beach sometime after that."

The things that he did and the things that he saw in the days that followed are still too horrific to report, but he is at last telling his family and friends about some of them.

"He never talked much about any of this stuff until the last few years," Dobson said. "And now I understand why. It is just too hard to imagine."

Today, Grover is 88 and spry enough to mow his lawn, pick and sing a little bluegrass music with friends, and dine out every day with folks who take great care of him because they love his company and they love to hear his stories on Baileyton in "the good old days."

He's a retired school bus driver, farmer and merchant, but mostly, he is proud of his role as daddy to his children, as granddaddy to a beautiful granddaughter, and of being a good neighbor to those who call and check on him when they see a strange vehicle in his driveway.

A German mortar round killed Oscar somewhere in France, and it was a German mortar that all but killed Grover not soon thereafter.

"I still can't hear from the explosion," he said, "but I was one of the fortunate few. Some of those around me were killed."

His legs, as well as his ears, still carry the scars of war, and while family and friends are more than willing to testify of the hero in their midst, Grover himself is not.

"I was just trying to get back home," he said. "I hated what I was doing over there, just like all the other soldiers hated it. But we had a job to do, and we meant to do it.

"The morale was sky-high. Even during our darkest moments, the morale was unbelievable. The enemy had started this fight, and we were there to end it. Surrender was not an option. It was never mentioned.

"We were ordered to kill the enemy before he killed us. We were told that we were shooting at a target, not human beings."

Before sustaining the wounds that sent him to several hospitals, Grover fought in some of the bloodiest campaigns of the European war, through Northern France and on into Central Europe.

He has two Bronze Stars, four battle stars and a Presidential Unit Citation to go with his Purple Heart.

He says he isn't sure how to handle the part about being labeled a member of "The Greatest Generation."

"I think it just boils down to when I was born, doesn't it?" he smiled. "I didn't have much to do with that.

"But all the War Two guys are now in our 80s and 90s, which means we've lost a step or two, and some of us are so hard-of-hearing that we can't hear them when people fuss at us for being so slow."

His memories surrounding June 6, 1944, and the days and months that followed are still fresh and vivid enough to keep his audiences at the diner spellbound. And while he would never call himself a history teacher, those who get to hear him say his lessons are among the most unforgettable they've ever heard.

"He puts a human face on war like no one, not the movies and not the books and not the experts, I have ever heard or seen. He is a rare jewel in a day when there simply aren't many rare jewels around," Dobson said.

History would come to call it D-Day, but for Sgt. Grover Payne, who "never amounted to much," it was simply a day to begin the fight that would somehow get him back home to Baileyton.