Payton Lane Davis

Payton Lane Davis, 25, passed away Monday, August 25, 2025 in Godley, Texas. He was born June 17, 2000 in Fort Worth, Texas to Mikeal Lynn Davis and Rhonda Michelle (Scruggs -Davis) Audas.

A graveside service will be held for Payton at 3 p.m. Thursday, September 11, 2025, at Rosehill Cemetery in Cleburne, Texas. Immediately after the service there will be a visit with family and friends at Westhill Church of Christ, 1100 W. Westhill Drive in Cleburne.

A Memorial Celebration Potluck and Bonfire will be held at 4 p.m., Friday, September 12, 2025 at Lingleville Baptist Church, 21543 FM 219 in Dublin, Texas 76446. There will be soup, snacks, soda, singing, and stories. Please bring your musical instruments and remember to BYOC - bring your own chair for the bonfire.

Our hearts are broken that somehow our AMAZING son Payton could have been taken from us by no fault of his own.

Our Precious Payton Lane, Paypay, Paytor Tator... left this side of Heaven suddenly and unexpectedly Monday August 25, 2025.

Payton Lane Davis was born into this world as "precious" from day one to Mikeal Lynn Davis and Rhonda Michelle (Scruggs / Davis) Audas.

We'll never forget hearing you say "I Preshush" and at 4 years old blessing our meal after receiving a "cancer free" diagnosis and saying "and thank you Jesus for letting me stay"... Your cup has forever been full spilling over with grace, love and kindness wherever you went. We can't possibly even tell everyone about your new address in Heaven because everywhere you went you made a friend and more importantly you were a friend! You have countless friends far and wide... and they're not shallow friendships... none of them! You weren't a surface only person. Payton, your love to others left a mark... because you loved fiercely and without regret!

You taught us all how to truly love people. You saw people the way Jesus sees people and never wanted to go give up on anybody- "We can't give up on 'em... we gotta' just keep prayin' for 'em!" you would always say. You constantly taught us to number our days and talked of Heaven more than any one person we've ever known.

Payton, you were passionate about everything because it all mattered to you. You are gifted in music and building things and creating something beautiful out of something messy. That's the lense you saw your whole life through. You came home with a pottery bowl that you made and told us how the teacher saw that it was just too far gone and you needed to just start over from scratch, but you were determined to fix the bowl you had already started on your wheel. That bowl would later become worthy of a scholarship when you submitted it for your assignment. Payton was never about giving up on someone or something. He was determined to make it awesome! And that you did!

Nothing was ever wasted on you Payton. Nothing! What others would dismiss to coincidence, you KNEW was about to be a divine appointment and that God was about to do something and that it was gonna' be BIG! And it would always turn into "I got good news!" ... Because you always wanted to share HIS good news! You gathered every seed God gave you and planted them all! God moved through you like no other!

You taught us all that absolutely nothing in this world matters, but loving people the way Jesus does. That's the whole idea of your "I AM" Projects. You ignored the noises around you of who the world might say you are and you were a list maker of all the wonderful things that God says you are in HIM... It was such a sweet discovery that you wanted others to know who God made them to be as well ...and so began the "I AM" Projects. You loved to write music at an early age, but you came to a place when your music took a dramatic shift to what was about reaching people so you could pack out Heaven and make it crowded.

At an early age you found that people can be hurtful and you were convinced a 3 legged race with Jesus was how you would race through this life w/ mercy, grace, much forgiveness and perseverance and oh .. how you ran! Fearlessly you ran, not away from, but toward every direction you felt the Holy Spirit calling you to go! The end of every destination would always be a "You're not gonna' BELIEVE what God did today!"... and "You're not going to BELIEVE what happened to me today!" and "It was AWESOME!"... and indeed it always was!

Your incredibly Generous spirit and infectious laugh will be greatly missed until we are all one again in Heaven.

As a wise friend once said, time in Heaven doesn't even compare to the time we're here on earth. Our time on earth is but a vapor and for that reason we will remain convinced that until we arrive there with you, you Payton will still be in utter awe in the presence of Jesus and that by the time you stop to look for us.... we will all be there.

Oh, but the sun could rise and set ten thousand times or more and we still couldn't have found the words that you so very much deserve in describing who you have been to all of us! ... People coming together describing you as a warm blanket to the world... as doubly anointed by God! ...as a servant for God never tiring from the task. You were wounded by many, but in the end you always walked with God on those roads and you always chose forgiveness time and time again... allowing forgiveness and grace to do what bitterness never could. You're the real deal Payton! Though you never wanted anything to point to you, but all to Jesus... your legacy will forever live on.... You shined the most glorious light everywhere you went. Just as you have loved all of us Precious Payton Lane, we will continue to love you ...ALWAYS and FOREVER! We're coming Paypay! Save us a seat at the table!

Hebrews 12:1-2

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Payton was proceeded in death by his father, Mikeal Lynn Davis; and his grandfathers, (Poppy) Charles Edwin Scruggs, and (Popo) Lonnie Davis.

He is survived by his mother, Rhonda Michelle (Scruggs-Davis) Audas and bonus dad, Steven Audas of Arlington; brother, Mikeal Korbin Davis and his wife, Jennifer Lynn (Harr) Davis of Arlington; sister, Bailey Katelan (Davis) Guillory, and her husband, Gardner Everett Guillory of Stephenville; grandparents, (Nana) Samantha Davis of Crowley and both grandmother (Mammy) Jackie Holden and bonus grandfather, Cliff Holden of Cleburne; along with a host of other relatives and friends.