leader The omnipresent neighbor

Evenif you don’t know Lybo Buchanan’s name, chances are, you’ve seen her around.

The 64-year-old redhead often rides her bike around her Kings Highway neighborhood. And she attends every neighborhood event, from Oak Cliff Mardi Gras and the Turner House salon series to rezoning hearings and town-hall meetings.

Buchanan grew up in North Dallas and rented in the Lower Greenville area before she and her husband, Lee Kelton, moved to their home on Kings Highway in 1996.

“I decided it was time to buy, and I gave my Realtor a list of things I wanted,” she says. “This was the one that fit the description.”

It is a two-story, four-bedroom house they share with three dogs and a 10-year-old gray parrot named Tasmin. The parrot barks almost as much as the Pomeranian, Miss Morgan.

“My husband is the one who really got me into volunteering,” she says.

Kelton was involved with the North Texas Irish Festival when she met him, and since then, she has served as a board member for that organization.

She threw herself into Oak Cliff neighborhood activities in 2003, during the Oak

Cliff Centennial. It spurred her involvement with Oak Cliff Earth Day and the Old Oak Cliff Conservation League.

She has served in many capacities for the league, including member at large, historian and a six-year stint as a board member. She hopes to be elected to another term this year.

“I love all the old houses in Oak Cliff,” she says. “We’re an active community. We know our neighbors, for the most part, and we’re always trying to make the neighborhood better.”

Buchanan served 11 years active duty in the Air Force and 15 years in the reserves before retiring in 1999. She also is retired from Sprint, and she works part-time as an administrative assistant for a small construction company.

By the way, her unique first name comes from her mother, Elizabeth, whose younger brothers couldn’t pronounce her name. Their baby talk nickname stuck, and she named her only daughter Lybo. The elder Lybo pronounced it “LEE-bow,” but Lybo, pronounces her name “luh-BOW.”