Mildred (Milly) Marie Buchanan
Sunrise: April 12, 1940 | Sunset: April 6, 2015
Mildred (Milly) Marie Buchanan was born in Monrovia, Liberia on April 12, 1940 in Monro-via, Liberia, the third child of Thomas Eric Buchanan and Sara King Buchanan (Howard). Milly passed away on April 6, 2015 in Lusaka, Zambia.
A prolific painter, Milly’s artistry began in Vevey, Switzerland, where her talent was first no-ticed at the age of 10, by a prominent Swiss artist, Guy Baer. In the late 70s, Milly developed her personal style of Afro-Cubism—her shattered-glass art expression of the social-political turmoil in Liberia and in Africa.
Truly a renaissance woman, Milly was also an architect, a conference interpreter and translator speaking five languages (French, German, Italian, Spanish and English), and a former model (including September 1971 Ebony Fashion Fair poster-model, Essence Magazine). Milly’s ex-tensive life spanned the African continent and she developed personal and professional rela-tionships with Africans from all walks of life (the late President Sekou Toure of Guinea and recording artists Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba, to uncelebrated market women, students, farmers, and fisherman). Her broad and rich network of friends and colleagues gave her a unique perspective from which to artistically represent the essence of the African struggle and spirit of resilience and hope.
Milly's memory will be cherished by her four children: Jeanine Milly Cooper (Johan Heffinck), Erika Eugenia Cooper Hill (Frederick Hill), Vernon John Mwaanga (Phyllis Vlahakis), and Sara Elizabeth Buchanan; Milly's son Julius Everett Cooper Jr. pre-deceased her. She had twenty grandchildren: Fabio, Brice, Ariane, Elyan, Chasya, Christa, Zubin, Ilse, Ann, Daniella, Stavros, Julius, Whitney, Baggio, Milly, Gifty, Thomas, Anne Marie, Xenia; two great-grandchildren: Zion and Patricia; three sisters: Enid Buchanan, Joyce Buchanan, and Shadrene Howard; her eldest sister, Mary Jane Buchanan Vaitsas, and elder brother, Harold Buchanan, pre-deceased her; her uncle Roosevelt King; her cousins: Gloria Sherman, James T. McCritty, Emeretta Vin-cent, Remi Aniteye, E. George King, Roosevelt King, Isabelle Paul, Virginie Viltardif Campail-la, Ilse Zahn Cooper; foster sister Janet Dean Richards; and a host of other relatives and friends including Olubanke King-Akerele and the C.T.O.King family, Eudora Barnes and family, and Dana Van Ee.
Funeral arrangements to follow.
