Helen Buchanan

Funeral services for longtime Lake Jackson resident Helen Foote Buchanan, 92, are set for 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 13, 2014 at the First Presbyterian Church of Lake Jackson, 102 Yaupon, with The Rev. Alan P. Trafford officiating. Visitation will be from 5-7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 12, at Restwood Funeral Home and Memorial Park, 1038 W. Plantation Drive in Clute. She died Friday, Sept. 5 after a lengthy illness.

Helen was born April 5, 1922 in Smithville, Texas, to railroad brakeman Henry Norris Foote and housewife Martha Jones Foote. The family soon moved to Hearne and later to Houston, where Helen graduated from Sam Houston High School around 1940. While working as a secretary for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, she met her future husband, then-Capt. John O. “Buck” Buchanan.

They were married Dec. 21, 1947 in Shreveport, La., and began a nearly 60-year marriage that took them all around the U.S. and overseas because of his career as an Army engineer. Their son, Charles, was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1956, and the family would live in Rolla, Mo.; Stuttgart, Germany; Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio; and Anchorage, Alaska, before Buck took a job with Dow Chemical Company and moved the family to Lake Jackson to “put down roots,” but the traveling wasn’t over. The Dow job took them to Anderson, S.C.; Stade, Germany; and Edmonton, Alberta in Canada. Between each move, though, the Buchanans always came home to Lake Jackson.

Helen was preceded in death by her sister, Elizabeth J. Foote Moran; husband, Lt. Col. John O. Buchanan; and, earlier this year, by their son, Charles O. Buchanan.

She is survived by her brother, Henry N. Foote, Jr. of Huntington; nephews Rick (Patty) Moran of Cincinnati, Ohio; Mark R. Moran of Bacliff; Henry N. Foote III (Darla) of Cleveland; Robert Foote of Huntington; great-nephews Keith Moran of League City, and Brian and Timothy Foote of Cleveland.

Helen treasured her long-time friends, Billie Jean “B.J.” Josserand of Cold Spring, and Donna Tetlow, Lainey Spoonemore and Margaret Hughes, all of Lake Jackson. The family extends special thanks to Ruth Ann Dudney of Damon and Rachel Harris, who made Helen’s life easier over the past difficult months.

Burial will be at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Tuesday, September 16, 2014 at 10:00 a.m., where Helen will be laid to rest with her husband.