Dora Jean Buchanan Hancey

Our sweet, beloved mother, grandmother, great grandmother, guardian and friend, Dora Jean Buchanan Hancey, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, September 15, 2026 in the 94th year of her beautiful life with loved ones at her side.

Dora was born May 21, 1933, in New Albany, Indiana to James William and Sylvia Rosalie Hood Buchanan, the firstborn of three daughters. She attended various Indiana schools. She was an exceptional student; she loved reading, science, art, and penmanship.

In her mid-teen years, Dora helped her parents run the family’s mobile monument engraving business which kept her parents on the road for weeks at a time. Dora answered the phone, tracked payments, and scheduled incoming jobs in a tri-state area. In those young years she also solely managed the household and took care of her younger sister, Mary, while attending junior high and then high school.

Dora met Ellis Bland Hancey in Lafayette, Indiana in the spring of 1949 while he attended college there. They dated, then married Oct. 21, 1949. Dora described their wedding: “It was a little unusual, a Baptist girl and a Mormon boy married by a Presbyterian minister in a Christian church.” They moved near to Ellis’s family home in Hyde Park, Utah, settling in Logan. Their marriage was later solemnized in the Logan Temple Oct. 21, 1952.

In 1950 two sister missionaries—Donna Sorenson and Marie Griffin—taught the gospel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Dora. She was baptized and confirmed by Ellis on March 3, 1951. Her conversion provided Dora a lifelong opportunity to research her family lines and perform ordinances for hundreds of her ancestors. She and Ellis became expert genealogists. Their great service eventually led to an 18-month mission in the New York, New York North Family History Mission from 1998 to 1999. In the Manhattan, New York family history center they assisted patrons with their genealogical research while sharing gospel principles.

As a faithful church member, Dora filled multiple Relief Society, Primary, and MIA leadership callings throughout her life, quietly and consistently serving fellow members and others with a Christlike spirit of kindness and love.

In 1954 Dora and Ellis bought the house and shop on 1000 North and Main Street in Logan and successfully ran the Intermountain Radio & TV business there for more than three decades. This accomplishment rested squarely on their mutual dedication to the business.

Dora’s primary, self-chosen purpose centered on raising the several children born to her and Ellis. (They lost one son, James, in 1953 when he was just two weeks old.) Dora was the anchor around which her children’s lives were woven. She worked tirelessly all day every day to care for them in every way she could, facing difficult times with courage and determination, and good times with happiness and peace. It was rare to see her sitting down; she was constantly in motion in her care and service to her family.

Dora created lasting memories for her family. She somehow packed a Jeep with enough food and gear to provide idyllic camping trips for her large family who will forever carry memories of waking up in canvas tents and eating breakfasts cooked on a Coleman stove. In similar fashion she packed the family station wagon for a road trip to Indiana every few years, hauling the children along for the joy of the journey and to meet the relatives. She used all her resources to take her large family on many adventures she wanted them to experience.

Dora was skillfully diligent at feeding her large family, producing hearty meals now replicated in her children’s kitchens. Her children and grandchildren’s favorite food memories include Dora’s epic Thanksgiving dinners (complete with lime jello salad), Halloween parties, Christmas parties, family reunions, Sunday dinners, and more. She understood and practiced the proven truth that families willingly gather to eat.

Dora and Ellis strove for self reliance. In their huge garden they grew endless produce while growing solid work habits in their children. Dora preserved much of the food grown and consumed by the family; her fruit room shelves held long, colorful rows of bottled vegetables and fruits, reflecting endless, sometimes late-night hours of hard work.

Despite days filled with work and service, Dora found ways to express her artistic talents. She enjoyed textile painting and produced many beautiful items treasured by her families. She also decorated cakes, winning ribbons at the local fair in her younger years. Some of her children’s weddings featured one of her beautifully tiered cakes. Dora also raised flowers everywhere she lived reflecting her love for their variety and colors. Dora’s other interests included reading, learning, hunting, and enjoying the beautiful mountains surrounding her home. Memories of Dora will always include how she whistled liltingly when she was happy. She actually won a whistling contest in her youth.

Possibly the greatest gift Dora gave her family was her consistent example of caring for and serving others. Her children remember the hats and gloves she kept in her car in case she saw a child in need. She served for years as a volunteer in the gift shop at Logan Regional Hospital. She loved creating beautiful plates of Christmas goodies to share with neighbors, and often carried meals to the homes of those in need. She was quick to protect the underdogs of her world, both people and animals alike.

Dora is survived by seven children: son Curtiss (Barbara) of Manteca, California; daughters Donna (Danny) Erickson of Smithfield; Louise (John) Brown of Layton; Sylvia (Lornel) Tibbitts of Logan; Marianne (Casey) Christensen of Hyde Park; and sons David (Laurel) of Hyde Park; and Neil (Lauri) of Hyde Park. She is also survived by a nephew, Jim Everse. Her progeny includes 23 grandchildren, 59 great grandchildren; and 4 great great grandchildren.

Dora was preceded in death by her husband, Ellis; her parents; one infant son, James Willard; sisters Mary Lynn Marra and Janice Mae Buchanan; son-in-law, Danny Erickson; grandchild, Kim Erickson; and one great grandchild, Ellis Hampton Hancey.

The family extends deep gratitude to Karmon Reese, administrator of Terrace Grove Assisted Living, and her kind and capable staff and nurses for their years of caring for Dora with sincere love and respect.

Funeral services will be held Saturday, September 26 at 11:00 a.m. in Hyde Park 1st Ward chapel, 480 No. 100 West, Hyde Park. Friends may visit at a viewing held prior to the funeral from 9:30 to 10:30 that morning. Interment will be in the Hyde Park Cemetery.

Funeral arrangements by Nelson Funeral Home.