Buchanan was born in Cuthbert, Georgia, and reared in Waxahachie, Texas. She studied commercial design in New York and painting in Dallas under Frank Reaugh and John Francis Knott. She painted cover illustrations for Holland’s magazine. Buchanan was a resident of Dallas in 1913, of Waxahachie in 1934, and again of Dallas in 1940. In 1956 she moved to Durant, Oklahoma, where she died. Source: Texas Painters, Sculptors & Graphic Artists by John and Deborah Powers