Lila Diane Sawyer

I had heard over the years that we, Dunagans, are related to Diane Sawyer of ABC, CBS, 60 Minutes, 20/20, Co-anchor Good Morning America(GMA) fame. Often people like to claim to be related to famous people but I never took it very seriously until recently. I received in the mail a genealogical newsletter, Dunnagans of All Spellings from Dick Dunagan. On page 3 there was a short article called "Looking For Diane's Story" and a newspaper clipped photo copy showing Diane Sawyer standing with her family in Wayne County, KY, after attending the funeral of her grandmother Nora Bell Dunagan in 1982. Well, I became intrigued....and this is what I found.

Born Lila Diane Sawyer in Glasgow, Kentucky, Sawyer is the daughter of Jean Wray Dunagan, an elementary school teacher, and Erbon Powers "Tom" Sawyer, a judge. Soon after her birth, her family moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where her father rose to local prominence as a Republican politician and community leader; he was Kentucky's Jefferson County Judge/Executive when he was killed in a car accident on Louisville's Interstate 64 in 1969. E. P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park, located in the Frey's Hill area of Louisville, is named in his honor.

Sawyer attended Seneca High School in the Buechel area of Louisville. In 1963, she won the "America's Junior Miss" scholarship pageant as a representative from the State of Kentucky. In 1967, she received a bachelor of arts degree with a major in English from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. She attended one semester of law school at the University of Louisville before turning to journalism. Sawyer then became a local television news reporter and weather girl for WLKY-TV in Louisville.

In 1970, White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler hired her to serve in the administration of U.S. President Richard Nixon. Sawyer continued through Nixon's resignation from the presidency in 1974 and worked on the Nixon-Ford transition team in 1974–1975, after which she decamped with Nixon to California and helped him write his memoirs, published in 1978. She also helped prepare Nixon for his famous set of television interviews with journalist David Frost in 1977. The rest is in the history books.

Well it turns out that there is a family connection. Diane's 5th great grandfather was Thomas "Tommy" Dunagan born around 1744 in Orange County, North Carolina. He served as a Pvt. in the Revolutionary War from NC from Apr 25 1776 until he was mustered out on January 1778. Thomas "Tommy" Dunagan was a brother to My 5th great grandfather Joseph Dunagan.

Thomas "Tommy" Dunagan married a Martha "Patsy" (last name unknown) and they had a son named Isaac who was born around 1765 in Orange County, NC but as an adult later moved to Wayne County, KY, died around 1822. Isaac married Mary "Polly" West and had a son named Solomon. Solomon married two women, 1st. wife was Elizabeth Turpin, 2nd wife was Sarah "Sally" Fox with whom he had a son named Solomon Henry Harrison Dunagan born April 28, 1841.

Solomon Henry Harrison Dunagan married Mary Matilda Lovell of Wayne County, KY on November 11, 1860. (Feth)Lafayette Dunagan was born from this union on July 9, 1868. Lafayette is Diane Sawyer's great grandfather. He married Mary Alta Weaver on December 25, 1888, in Wayne County, KY.

Lafayette and Mary "Alta" had a son they named Foxie B. Dunagan born around 1891. Foxie married Nora Bell Roberts and this is the grandmother whose funeral Diane attended in 1982 in Wayne County, KY. I wish I knew what the initial B stands for in Foxie's name.

Foxie and Nora Bell Dunagan's daughter is Jean Wray Dunagan, Diane's mother.

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Picture below: Foxie Dunagan is third person from left on back row standing with hand on hip wearing overalls and hat. (photo taken circa 1911)

Sources: Various/Ancestry.com/Dunnagans Of All Spellings Issue 2009 published by Dick Dunagan/Newspaper article/photo from Hatha Dunagan Dodge

Hall County, Georgia 1895

John Park Dunagan

JOHN D. DUNAGAN was born August 06, 1799 in Hall County, Georgia, the 4^th child of Ezekiel and Lydia Ann Brown Dunagan and was John Park Dunagan's grandfather. He died Abt. 1856 in Whitfield, Georgia. He married MARTHA HARLAN Abt. 1828 in Jackson County, Georgia, daughter of VALENTINE HARLAN and MILDRED SNOW. She was born March 12, 1811 in Jackson County, Georgia, and died August 16, 1860 in Whitfield, Georgia.

Children of JOHN DUNAGAN and MARTHA HARLAN are:

ADELINE DUNAGAN, b. January 11, 1829.

BENJAMIN SANFORD DUNAGAN, b. March 24, 1830.

HARLAN DUNAGAN, b. July 07, 1831.

ELIZABETH DUNAGAN, b. February 12, 1832.

JOHN BRICE DUNAGAN, b. July 14, 1833, Whitfield County, Georgia; d. March 01, 1900, Catoosa County, Georgia.

GEORGE WASHINGTON DUNAGAN, b. June 27, 1835.

MARTHA DUNAGAN, b. Abt. 1837, Whitfield County, Georgia.

LOUISA JANE DUNAGAN, b. February 22, 1837.

JACKSON DUNAGAN, b. June 23, 1840, Whitfield County, Georgia.

JOSHUA DUNAGAN, b. Abt. 1842.

JOSEPHINE DUNAGAN, b. November 15, 1844, Whitfield County, Georgia.

MARY PALESTINE DUNAGAN, b. Abt. 1848.

SAMUEL DUNAGAN, b. Abt. 1850, Jackson County, Georgia.

LENORA DUNAGAN, b. Abt. 1852, Whitfield County, Georgia.

JOHN BRICE DUNAGAN was born July 14, 1833 in Whitfield County, Georgia, and died March 01, 1900 in Catoosa County, Georgia. He married first wife SARAH JARRETT ALEXANDER. She was born Abt. 1833. He married second wife MARYETTA BABB. She was born Abt. 1833.

Children of JOHN DUNAGAN and SARAH ALEXANDER are:

JOSEPH DUNAGAN, b. Abt. 1866, Catoosa County, Georgia.

CHARLES DUNAGAN.

JOHN PARK DUNAGAN

ROBERT LEE DUNAGAN.

MATTIE LEE DUNAGAN.

MARY DUNAGAN.

Children of JOHN BRICE DUNAGAN and MARYETTA BABB are:

THOMAS DUNAGAN.

LEWIS DUNAGAN.

John Park Dunagan was born July 30, 1868, in Chickamauga, Georgia. His parents were John Brice Dunagan and Sara Alexander (daughter of John P. Alexander and Elizabeth Caldwell Tate).

John Park Dunagan attended Coosawatte Seminary, Cheyne, Georgia. On the completion of his education, he left Georgia for Texas and settled at Veal Station in Parker County, near Weatherford, Texas. He farmed and taught math at a college there where he met Louvenia Ann Campbell. They were married on November 13, 1892, and lived in Veal Station until 1903 before moving to Olney in Young County, Texas. They traveled by covered wagon when they moved their young family to Olney. They already had 6 children, had lost one child at 8 months old and Louvenia Ann was pregnant with their 7th. child.

John Park and Louvenia Ann Dunagan had 11 children before John Park died July 3, 1948. Below is a photo of the surviving children circa 1950s taken in Olney, Texas. From left to right in order of age Roy, Joe, Bess, Ruby, Johnnie, Bert, Erma Lucille, Pearl and Leta.

Sources: Various/Dunagans Of All Spellings Issue #20/May 2002. Dick Dunagan

Dunagan Family Indian Heritage

Submitted by Darline Dunagan Scruggs

My second great grandmother was Frances Samanthra Bryant who married John Franklin Dunagan in 1854. She was born in 1835 in Hall county, GA, died 3 Jun 1933 in Jackson County, GA.

Frances Samanthra Bryant Dunagan was the daughter of Jeter Bryant and Sarah Frost. According to a deposition recorded July 7, 1908, in Gainesville, GA, by two of her sisters, Sarah Bryant Dunagan and Sofronia Bryant Latham, both Bryant sisters testified that their maternal great grandmother was a full blooded Eastern Cherokee Indian. Incidentally, Sarah Bryant had also married a Dunagan man, Ezekiel Dunagan, brother to John Franklin Dunagan, sons of Joseph Ellis Dunagan, State Senator from Hall County, GA, for 23 consecutive years.

The two sisters were applying for compensation from the Federal Government based on documented blood lines of Eastern Cherokee Indians who had been promised compensation for the lands taken in the treaty of 1835 which of course resulted in the removal of the Cherokees from Georgia.

Below is a copy of the depositions made by Sofronia and Sarah:

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