[5][6] Buchanan enjoyed a privileged childhood in which she summered at her family's estate, Beaulieu House in Newport, Rhode Island, or in the south of France, a member of a social circle that included royalty and heads of government.
[4] A year after parting from Traina in 1980, she married the dairy product mogul[7] and real estate developer[8] Al Wilsey,[9][10] who had recently divorced his third wife, a friend of Buchanan's, the social columnist Patricia Montandon.
It was alleged that she had exploited her wealth and her power to fire many of the de Young's most experienced curators, to force it to mount an exhibition of photographs owned by one of her sons and to appropriate some of its staff to tend to her personal collection.
In 2022, Wilsey and the Museums promoted a ballot that invited San Franciscans to reopen the Promenade to cars, but 61% of voters chose to preserve the status quo.
[16][17] Wilsey also serves on the board of the Museum Concourse Community Partnership that owns and manages the 800-car underground garage which is the most convenient place for visitors to the de Young to park.
[18][19] Dede Halcyon, a character in Armistead Maupin's roman-fleuve Tales of the City, described by a reviewer of the 2019 miniseries based on the books as the "boozy art-patron friend" of the show's protagonist, is allegedly a "thinly-veiled portrayal" of Wilsey.