Dates: 1867 - 1925.
Microfilm copy must be used. (MF Roll # 36583)

Biography:

Susie Blue Buchanan was born on April 2, 1882, in her family's home in Brandon, Mississippi. She was the eldest of ten children of Judge William and Maggie Gunn Buchanan. Buchanan graduated from Brandon High School and attended the following colleges: Mississippi Synodical College, East Mississippi Female College, Harris College, and Millsaps College.

Following college, Buchanan taught school in Rankin County and elsewhere. She eventually went to work as a secretary for her father, a lawyer in Brandon. She began reading law while she worked for him. Despite her father's death in 1912, she continued her legal studies with the assistance of his partner, J. R. East. Buchanan received her license to practice law in December of 1916; she became the first woman to join the Mississippi State Bar Association in 1918. She was also the first woman to practice law before the Supreme Court of Mississippi. Buchanan's legal specialty was land abstracts, and she compiled a book of Rankin County plats called the "Susie Blue Book" that was still in use as recently as 1988.

From 1924 until her death in 1938, Buchanan served as the deputy chancery clerk of Rankin County. During this time Buchanan compiled a history of Brandon Presbyterian Church, as well as several notebooks on family genealogy. Buchanan died on April 11, 1938.

Scope and Content Note:

The scrapbook contains clippings, programs, and other material traditionally found in scrapbooks. The clippings range from marriage and death notices to poems, and include articles about Buchanan's career. The volume also includes report cards for Susie Blue Buchanan; her father, William Buchanan; and her mother, Maggie Gunn Buchanan. The scrapbook also contains two photographs of the Stevens-Buchanan house, The Magnolias, originally built by Richardson Stevens in 1860, and the Buchanan family home in Brandon.

Series Identification:

Series 1: Scrapbook. 1867–1925. 1 bound volume; 1 35 mm. positive microfilm roll (MF Roll # 36583).