Dede Wilsey - Early Life

Early Life

She was born Diane Dow Buchanan in 1944, to Mr. and Mrs. Wiley T. Buchanan, Jr. Her father was, variously, the U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg and Austria, as well as the White House Chief of Protocol under Dwight Eisenhower. Her maternal great-grandfather, Herbert Henry Dow, was the founder of Dow Chemical. She married shipping magnate and art collector John Traina in 1965, and had two sons with him (Todd and Trevor Traina). Her father was against the marriage. In 1980, she married dairy millionaire Wilsey, who had recently divorced his third wife, Pat Montandon. She and Wilsey were fixtures on the social axes of San Francisco and Napa Valley, where they maintained a country house. She remains a prominent figure in the artistic and cultural spheres of San Francisco, spearheading the rebuilding of the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, as well as the establishment of numerous trusts for organizations such as the San Francisco Ballet. She also is featured prominently in her stepson Sean Wilsey's memoir Oh the Glory of it All in which the author describes her as his "evil stepmother".

Wilsey is the mother of film producer Todd Traina and Trevor Traina.