Mary Elizabeth ("Mary Lib") Dodson Randall

Mary Elizabeth (“Mary Lib”) Dodson Randall passed away peacefully on June 3, 2025, with family by her side. Born in Danville, Virginia on December 22, 1928, to loving parents Willard and Anice Dodson, her younger sister, Anne, and she grew up enjoying small town life, attending Main Street Methodist Church, and spending time with friends and extended family. Mary Lib graduated from Randolph-Macon Women’s College in 1950, majoring in religion and minoring in studio art. During a summer school session at the University of Virginia, she met a handsome and witty World War II veteran, Campbell Lanier Randall, Jr., who was studying pre-law. After graduating, she married him and taught elementary school in Athens, Georgia while he completed his law degree. Their first child, a daughter, was born during this time. When her husband finished law school, he set up his practice in Atlanta, and their second child, a son, was born soon after this move. Mary Lib taught and served as the librarian at several elementary schools in the Atlanta Public School System for 34 years until her retirement in 1989. She enjoyed teaching and inspiring curiosity in her young students and was a great colleague to her fellow educators. She and her husband were active in the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Atlanta when it was located on Briarcliff Road, serving as co-sponsors of the college students’ group and making many lifelong friends. She later became active in Central Presbyterian Church, singing in the choir. She and her husband enjoyed entertaining friends and family in their home, where she also enjoyed cooking, writing poetry, making art, reading, and gardening. She made their home comfortable and welcoming to all, and it was a favorite gathering place for her children’s friends.

After retirement, Mary Lib travelled extensively both within the US and in Europe with family and friends. In 2001, several years after the death of her husband, she moved to North Chesterfield, Virginia to be closer to her daughter and granddaughter. She became an active member of Second Presbyterian Church in Richmond, making many friends and participating in a mission trip to Guatemala, as well as being an active member of the women’s group. She continued to hone her artistic skills at the Visual Art Center of Richmond and to create an extensive garden which included a collection of hydrangeas. In 2015, she moved to Brandermill Wood Retirement Community where she continued to enjoy entertaining new friends and old, as well as cooking, gardening, writing, creating art and traveling, and being with family.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Campbell Lanier Randall, Jr., JD; her son, Campbell Lanier Randall, III, MD; and her sister, Anne Dodson Williams. She is survived by her daughter, Mellie Randall of Midlothian, Virginia; three granddaughters: Rachel Randall Sinde (Steve) of Des Plaines, Illinois; Charlotte Randall Corley (Evan) of Huntsville, Alabama; and Brittany Horchak Zagurski (Preston) of Chesterfield, Virginia; four great-grandsons; a host of nieces and nephews who loved her ad were loved by her; and many friends. We will miss her curiosity, loving companionship, her ability to see beauty everywhere, her humor and sweet generosity of spirit.

The family wishes to express its heartfelt gratitude to the health care providers in the Bon Secours healthcare system, the health and home care professionals and friends and neighbors at Brandermill Woods Retirement Community, and to her friends at Second Presbyterian Church for their love and support.

A memorial service celebrating her life will be held on August 14 at 11AM at Second Presbyterian Church, 5 North Fifth Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219. The service will be livestreamed at 2presrichmond.org. The church will host a reception immediately after the service. Interment will be private. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial donations be made to The Protestant Center for Pastoral Studies in Central America (CEDPCA.org), Doctors Without Borders (give.doctorswithoutborders.org), Second Presbyterian Church, or another charity.