By Robert D. Dávila, Sacramento Bee

Ken Payton, a newspaperman and outdoorsman who covered the Lake Tahoe area and Sierra Nevada foothills as a longtime reporter for the Sacramento Bee, died June 21 at 87.

Ken Payton

Mr. Payton, who bicycled solo from his Citrus Heights home to St. Augustine, Fla., at 82, died after a recent muscle disease left him unable to swallow food, his daughter Susanne said. His health had declined since his wife of 61 years, Dolores, died last February.

A handsome, physically imposing man with a quiet and professional manner, Mr. Payton was a dedicated and dependable reporter for more than 25 years at The Bee. He started in 1966, when McClatchy Newspapers blanketed Northern California with stringers and reporters, and worked as the paper’s full-time staff writer at the north shore of Lake Tahoe.

“He was a good journalist, worked hard and never complained,” former Bee reporter Jon Engellenner said.

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