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Sarah Jean Owen Dunaway was born in Atlanta, GA, the daughter of James Newton Owen and Hattie Maybelle King. She was married in 1981 to the late John Allen Dunaway, Sr. Mrs. Dunaway was Office Manager of the Atlanta Sales office of Progressive Farmer and Southern Living magazines. She continues to reside in Atlanta, where she remains active in the local community.

Memberships

  • National Gavel Society
  • National Society Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims (Honorary Governor General; past Georgia Branch Governor)
  • Dames of Colonial Cavaliers 1640-1660 (Organizing Governor General; Governor General Emerita)
  • National Society Sons and Daughters of Antebellum Planters l607-l86l (Honorary President General)
  • National Society Magna Charta Dames and Barons
  • First Families of Georgia 1733-1797 (Honorary Governor General)
  • Dames of the Court of Honor (past President of the Georgia Society)
  • United Daughters of the Confederacy (Honorary President General; Chairman of the Memorial Building Board of Trustees; past President of the Georgia Division)
  • National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (past Historian of the Baron DeKalb Chapter)
  • National Society Daughters of American Colonists (past Recording Secretary of the James Edward Oglethorpe Chapter)
  • Colonial Dames of the Seventeenth Century (past Registrar of the Ann Pope Washington Chapter)
  • National Society Colonial Daughters of the Seventeenth Century
  • United Daughters of the Confederacy (past President of the Alfred Holt Colquitt Chapter; oversight of all Georgia Division records)
  • National Society United States Daughters of 1812 (former First Vice President and former Second Vice President of the Georgia Society; former First Vice President and former Treasurer of the General John Floyd Chapter)
  • Sons and Daughters of the Colonial & Antebellum Bench & Bar 1565-1861
  • Continental Society Daughters of Indian Wars
  • National Society Daughters of Colonial Wars
  • Hereditary Order of Descendants of Loyalists and Patriots of the American Revolution
  • Huguenot Society of Founders of Manakin in the Colony of Virginia
  • National Huguenot Society
  • Order of Americans of Armorial Ancestry
  • Guild of Colonial Artisans and Tradesman 1607-1783
  • Presidential Families of America

Mrs. Dunaway was awarded the Jefferson Davis Historical Gold Medal and the Winnie Davis Medal by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She was also awarded the Robert E. Lee Medal for outstanding contributions above and beyond the required duties of an Advisor, by the Children of the Confederacy.

Authorship

  • First Families of Georgia 1733-1797 Lineage Book Volume I (with Deputy Governor General)
  • National Society Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims Lineage Book IX (with Editor General)

Notes

Mrs. Dunaway was a board member of the DeKalb History Center; the Hebron Historic Society; the Georgia Women of Achievement; the Historical Oakland Cemetery Foundation; and the Marietta Confederate Cemetery Foundation, Inc. She also served as Chairman of "Save Georgia's Historic Flags" collection in the State Capitol Museum's Hall of Valor.

In addition, Mrs. Dunaway was a Kentucky Colonel and an Arkansas Traveler. She also held memberships in the Owen Family Association; Rucker Family Association; Grace Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star; Atlanta Historical Society; Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, Inc.; Georgia Historical Society; Atlanta Preservation Center; Georgia Humanities Council; Friends of Georgia Archives (member of the organizing committee); the Northeast Georgia History Center at Brenau University; and Friends of the National Archives.

Mrs. Dunaway was honored by the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board with the Award for Advocacy, "for her tireless efforts on behalf of the preservation of historical records in Georgia". Furthermore, she was the recipient of one of the Annual Georgia Governor's Awards in the Humanities, honoring those who have fostered an understanding of Georgia's cultural traditions, thereby strengthening community, character and citizenship in the State.

She was an active member of Westminster Presbyterian Church of Atlanta.

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