Report: Owner-breeder Virginia Payson dies at 92

Virginia Kraft Payson, a horse owner and breeder and outdoor sports enthusiast, died Monday at age 92 at her Payson Stud farm in Lexington, Ky.

Thoroughbred Daily News reported that the cause of death was complications from Parkinson's disease.

Payson became involved in Thoroughbred racing in the late 1970s, when her husband, the late Charles Shipman Payson, bid on a horse at an auction in Lexington, according to the TDN report. From there, they built a breeding operation that produced St. Jovite, Europe's 1992 horse of the year, and Carr de Naskra, winner of the 1984 Travers (G1).

After graduating from Barnard College, Payson became one of the first writers at the newly launched Sports Illustrated magazine in 1954 and worked there for 26 years, according to the report. 

Her other interests included hunting big game, piloting hot-air balloons, sport fishing and scuba diving, according to the report. She wrote books on boating, training dogs, shotgun sports and tennis.

Payson is survived by her husband, David Libby Cole, three children from her first marriage, to Robert Dean Grimm, and three grandchildren, according to the report.