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June 1946 – The Marriage of Wang Tsung-lo and Marion Buchanan is Moved to Kansas

Posted: June 5th, 2016 | 1 Comment »

In June 1946 Marion Buchanan, 29, of Springfield, Missouri married Wang Tsung-lo, 26, of Shanghai, at the Baptist Church in Columbus, Ohio. The service was conducted by the Reverend Otis Beatty. It was reportedly a “simple ceremony”. The brides parents attended and Marion’s brother Robert was Wang’s best man. Wang was a language Professor at Yale; Marion a school teacher. The couple had met in Phoenix, Arizona where Marion was working as a high school teacher and Wang was an interpreter working for the army.

They had planned to marry in Missouri and had applied for a marriage license and made arrangements. However, the marriage was forbidden under a 111-year old law in Missouri making it illegal for a white woman to marry a “Mongolian”! So they drove to Kansas and got married in Columbus.

I’m afraid I have no idea how the marriage turned out – hopefully all went well…

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One Comment on “June 1946 – The Marriage of Wang Tsung-lo and Marion Buchanan is Moved to Kansas”

  1. 1 Rachel Wang O’Toole said at 1:40 pm on July 25th, 2020:

    Hey there!

    Great article. Marion and Tsung Lo (T.L) are my grandparents. They had two sons, one of which is my father. They lived great long lives, and my grandfather would teach me and my siblings little bits of the Chinese culture and language when we were kids.

    Thanks for writing.

    -Rachel Wang O’Toole


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