Former Alexandria Mayor Ned Randolph dies at age 74

Edward G. “Ned” Randolph Jr., who brought dignity back to the Alexandria mayor’s office after his predecessor turned it into a political circus, died Tuesday morning at the age of 74.

Randolph, an attorney, served five terms as mayor of Alexandria, from 1986 to 2006. In recent years, he suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.

He died at 7:50 a.m. Tuesday in Grace Home, a hospice care facility in Alexandria.

Funeral services are set for 10 a.m. Saturday in First United Methodist Church in Alexandria. Visitation will run from 8:30 a.m. until time of services Saturday in the church.

UPDATE: Events set Thursday, Saturday to memorialize Randolph

When he became mayor in 1986, Randolph succeeded John K. Snyder, whose political antics had made Alexandria politics a laughingstock throughout the state and beyond.

Marion Chaney, who served as an Alexandria councilman from 1977 to 1986, said Randolph “came in at a good time. The city was lacking good leadership (from the Snyder administration). He came in and picked up the pieces and did a great job as far as restoring the city to respectability.”

Pineville Mayor Clarence Fields, whose tenure as mayor overlapped Randolph’s for about seven years, said, “He brought back to Alexandria a sense of people feeling free to talk about their city because they became proud of their city under his leadership.”

The city of Alexandria on Thursday will host a wake and an opportunity for citizens to pay their respects.

Randolph’s body will lie in repose beginning at noon Thursday in City Hall, and the public is encouraged to pay their respects.

On Thursday evening at a time to be announced, Randolph’s body will be moved from an area of City Hall, possibly on the Third Street side, to Convention Hall, which is part of the City Hall complex, for a wake ceremony featuring speakers honoring Randolph.

The City Council on Tuesday passed a resolution in honor of Randolph and authorized use of Convention Hall and City Hall for Thursday’s activities.

“The city of Alexandria encourages such public participation in the good will and civic pride associated with Mayor Randolph’s legacy, and finds, as a matter of public policy, that Mayor Randolph’s legacy is intertwined with that of the city …,” the resolution reads in part.

Mayor Jacques Roy ordered flags be flown at half-staff at City Hall in honor of Randolph.

Randolph served as a state senator from 1976 to 1984 and as a member of the House from 1972 to 1976. He also twice ran unsuccessfully for Congress. He is a member of the Louisiana Political Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 2008.

His death was announced in a statement by his wife, Deborah.

“He waged a courageous battle with Alzheimer’s disease for many years, and I am grateful to have been at his side to help him through this journey, including the final moments of it,” said Deborah, who is president of the Central Louisiana Chamber of Commerce.

“Ned often told me how privileged he felt to have had the opportunity to serve his community as mayor. He described those years as the best of his life,” she said.

Roy, who succeeded Randolph as mayor in 2006, said Randolph left a remarkable legacy as a mayor and as a person.

“Mayor Ned Randolph possessed a genuine love for Alexandria, this community, and our region. Studying him and his wonderful legacy, I often think about Ned’s greatest twin virtues of kindness and integrity,” Roy said in a statement.

“Those two virtues he possessed in abundance allowed him political —  but, more importantly, personal — success.  He left his imprint everywhere, and he left a legacy of how decency defines great people — how the goodness of this man who wanted to minister to people as a pastor ended up informing the life of a man who ministered to the people as a mayor,” Roy said.

“Thank you to Deborah Randolph for her support of Ned, and her own contributions to our area.  She was with him until he passed — at his side — taking personal care of him until it was literally impossible.

“She is to be commended for her exemplary devotion to her husband, to the oaths we take as married people — again, like him, for her own decency, her integrity, and her kindness,” Roy concluded in his statement.

Randolph was a graduate of Bolton High School, Princeton University and Tulane Law School

While a state senator in 1982, Randolph challenged incumbent Congressman Gillis Long but lost. Long did not take kindly to Randolph running against him, and Long supported Joe McPherson’s successful bid to defeat Randolph in the Senate race in 1983.

Randolph also ran for Congress in 1992 in a race in which Richard Baker was elected.

In the 1986 mayoral race, Randolph defeated seven other candidates by capturing 52.5 percent of the vote in the primary.

In his four re-election bids, he won each in the primaries.

During Randolph’s tenure as mayor, Interstate 49 opened through Alexandria, and the Alexandria Riverfront Center and the Coughlin-Saunders Performing Arts Center opened downtown.

England Air Force Base closed in 1992, but Randolph was among the leaders in having the former base site transformed into England Airpark, which mitigated the negative economic impact of the base closing and gained national acclaim for Alexandria.

In a 2006 interview, he said the “worst day” of his tenure as mayor came in February 2003 when two city police officers were shot to death.

Over the course of his two decades as mayor, the city of Alexandria became a majority-black city. Randolph appointed the city’s first black police chief and pushed for more minority representation on the police force.

But Randolph’s primary legacy may be that he brought civility and respect to the mayor’s office following Snyder’s unwholesome brand of politics that included vilifying anyone who disagreed with him.

Snyder had City Hall bugged, seized the police chief’s car, took off one of his boots at a press conference to show an arthritic toe and had catfish put in the city swimming pool. The catfish did not survive.

Chaney served three months as interim mayor in 1986 when Snyder was hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation.

He said Randolph called him in 1986 concerning a possible run for mayor.

“Ned called me, and he said, ‘Are you going to run?’ And I said, ‘No, I’m not going to run,’ so he said, ‘I will,’” Chaney recalled.

Randolph was “a good man in every way” in addition to doing “a great job” as mayor, Chaney said.

“He took over a real tough situation as far as the city administration goes, where the city was at that time, which was not good in the eyes of just about everyone. Throughout the nation we were getting calls from everybody about the conditions up at City Hall” because of Snyder’s antics, Chaney said.

Fields said that when he first took office as mayor of Pineville, Randolph immediately reached out to him in the spirit of cooperation.

“It was like someone who reached across the river and grabbed me by the hand and gave me a big hug,” Fields said, and “the two cities began to really move forward together.”

“I think that’s going to be his legacy. He was a kind gentleman. I think everyone that he touched — not only as mayor, but in life in general — his presence meant so much to whoever he had conversations with and whoever he worked with,” he said.

Fields said he will forever cherish his friendship and working relationship with Randolph.