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Dow-Towsley-Hale-Buchanan family of Michigan

Note: This is just one of 643 family groupings listed on The Political Graveyard web site. These families each have three or more politician members, all linked together by blood, marriage or adoption.

Some families traditionally (and perhaps properly) considered separately are joined together here if linked by marriage or otherwise. These groupings — even the names of the groupings, and the state or lists of states of main activity — are the result of a computer algorithm, not the choices of any historian or genealogist.

• Leland Ira Doan (1894-1974) — also known as Leland I. Doan — of Midland, Midland County, Mich. Born in North Bend, Dodge County, Neb., November 9, 1894. Son of Ira Doan and Hester (Spencer) Doan; married, April 17, 1917, to Ruth Alden Dow (1895-1950) (sister of Margaret Towsley; aunt of Margaret Ann Riecker); married 1950 to Mildred Mellus. Republican. President, Dow Chemical Company, 1949-62; member of University of Michigan board of regents, 1952-59; director, Michigan Bell Telephone Company. Presbyterian. Member, Freemasons; Sigma Chi. Died in Midland, Midland County, Mich., April 4, 1974. Burial location unknown.
  
  
• Margaret Towsley (1906-1994) — also known as Margaret Grace Dow — of Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, Mich. Born January 3, 1906. Daughter of Herbert Henry Dow (1866-1930; founder, Dow Chemical); sister of Alden Dow (1904-1983; architect) and Ruth Alden Dow (who married Leland Ira Doan); married to Harry A. Towsley (1905-1993); aunt of Ruth Elizabeth Hale (who married Wiley Thomas Buchanan, Jr.); mother of Margaret Ann Riecker. Republican. First woman member of the Ann Arbor City Council; candidate for Presidential Elector for Michigan, 1964. Female. Died, of a stroke, at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, Superior Township, Washtenaw County, Mich., May 2, 1994. Burial location unknown.
  
  
• Wiley Thomas Buchanan, Jr. (1914-1986) — also known as Wiley T. Buchanan, Jr. — of Washington, D.C. Born in Myrtle Hill, Van Zandt County, Tex., January 4, 1914. Son of Wiley T. Buchanan and Lilla A. (Youngblood) Buchanan; married, April 12, 1940, to Ruth Elizabeth Hale (granddaughter of Herbert Henry Dow (1866-1930; founder, Dow Chemical); niece of Margaret Towsley; first cousin of Margaret Ann Riecker). Business executive; U.S. Minister to Luxembourg, 1953-56; U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg, 1956; Austria, 1975-77; chief of protocol, U.S. Department of State, 1957-61. Methodist. Died, from Alzheimer's disease, in a nursing home, February 16, 1986. Burial location unknown.
  • Books by Wiley T. Buchanan, Jr.: Red Carpet at the White House : Four years as Chief of Protocol in the Eisenhower Administration (1964)
  
  
• Margaret Ann Riecker (b. 1933) — also known as Ranny Riecker; Margaret Ann Towsley; Mrs. John Riecker — of Midland, Midland County, Mich. Born in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, Mich., November 9, 1933. Granddaughter of Herbert Henry Dow (1866-1930; founder, Dow Chemical); daughter of Harry A. Towsley (1905-1993) and Margaret Towsley; niece of Ruth Alden Dow (who married Leland Ira Doan); married 1955 to John E. Riecker; first cousin of Ruth Elizabeth Hale (who married Wiley Thomas Buchanan, Jr.). Republican. Delegate to Republican National Convention from Michigan, 1968, 1972, 1976; vice-chair of Michigan Republican Party, 1969-78; chair of Midland County Republican Party, 1970-78; member of Republican National Committee from Michigan, 1971-81. Female. Protestant. Still living as of 2000.
  
  

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