Great Aunt Dorothy

I never really knew her.  I think I visited with her when visiting my grandmother and her other sister, Great Aunt Margaret a few times in San Antonio in the 50s.  I seldom saw their other sister, Rowena Rogers, however.

I'm still looking for the picture of my grandmother and her sisters.  I had it at one point, but somehow some of my photos I scanned are no longer on my hard drive.  (Don't ask me how it can happen, but I realized a few months ago that some pictures I had actually posted here have now disappeared.)

Once we drove to her ranch to visit her I think.  It's all kind of a blur.  I'm pretty sure Aunt Margaret drove her old Buick, including going through some ranch type roads, gravel which crossed a stream by a "ford."  Since we were loaded down with me, my little siste, my mother, Grandmother and Aunt Margaret, we jokingly pushed on the dashboard in hopes the car could make it up some of the hills.  This was in the mountains and I thought they were near Monterey Mexico.

 A young Dorothy Miller, living in San Antonio, Texas, 1926  She was born in 1903 in Hillsboro, Texas, where her mother's family was from.  But she spent most of her adult life living with her parents in San Antonio.

Aunt Dorothy Buchanan's ranch

I look about 10 in that bottom right picture, wearing a "cowgirl" vest with white fringe on the red fabric.

I know she didn't marry till very late in her life at 47. Bennett Hillard "Buck" Buchanan was quite a bit older than Dorothy, born in 1889, and he had one grown child, Duane, born in 1917, who I don't remember ever meeting.  They went to Hawaii on the SS Lurline from Los Angeles, and Ancestry.com even has record of her being a passenger, probably for their honeymoon in 1953.

When I was an adult, Aunt Dorothy later moved to Houston where at one time she lived in a high rise apartment, then she had a nice small patio apartment with her white baby grand piano, and a pool which my sons and I enjoyed. Buck died in 1972, so I didn't have much interaction with him. I believe I introduced my husband to her, and somehow stayed in touch, probably through my mother.

Aunt Dorothy died in 1979 and donated her body to science. Maybe that's why her marker says "The Living Bank."