Jo Rider (Bug) Randall

A memorial service for Jo Rider (Bug) Randall will be held at 11:00 am, Saturday, April 1, 2023, at the chapel of the Presbyterian Community of Clinton, SC. She died March 27, 2023, at the Presbyterian Community with her family by her side.
Mrs. Randall was born in Washington, Georgia, November 24, 1933, the daughter of the late Joseph Rastus (Rufus) Rider and Lola Mae Taylor Rider. She lived in Washington until 2016 when she and her husband, the late Buzzy Randall, moved to Clinton, SC, to be near children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
She was a graduate of Washington High School where she was a state champion in tennis and later attended the Georgia State College for Women and the University of Georgia as a music major. She and her late husband were long-time season ticket holders and strong supporters of Washington-Wilkes Tiger football and University of Georgia football and basketball.
She grew up in the First Baptist Church of Washington, and she served in many volunteer roles in the church including choir member, accompanist (along with her sister, the late Jane Rider Newsome), Sunday School teacher, and children’s choir director. She later moved her membership to First United Methodist Church of Washington where she worked at the God’s Marketplace food pantry and thrift store, ran a weekly devotional program at the nursing home, and took monthly bingo to a local retirement community. After she moved, she was a member of Broad Street United Methodist Church of Clinton.
Mrs. Randall had many paying jobs through the years: making sandwiches for the Coca Cola bottling plant employees and working in the office, cheese straw maker, secretary and youth director at the First Baptist Church of Washington, calf raiser, piano teacher, teacher’s aide at the local elementary school, Bed & Breakfast host, and Associate Editor at The News-Reporter local newspaper with her brother-in-law, the late Smythe Newsome, among others. Her real contribution was all her many volunteer “jobs:” Boy Scout den mother, Meals on Wheels, the Washington Little Theater, Relay for Life, co-founder of the Independence Day parade, member of the Woman’s Club, girls’ softball team coach, church league softball team member, town tour guide, and many more.
Mrs. Randall was a member of the Washington-Wilkes Historical Foundation and wrote a book for the Washington Bicentennial celebration, Washington, Georgia After 200 Years. She represented the town as a member of the Friendship Force traveling to then Soviet Georgia. She was named Georgia Mother of the Year in 1991 by American Mothers, Inc. The Optimist Club named her a “Friend of Youth.” She and her late husband were named Chamber of Commerce “Volunteers of the Year” in 2008.
In addition to her parents and her sister, Mrs. Randall was preceded in death by her husband of 67 years, C.H. (Buzzy) Randall, and a son, Patrick Kelly Randall. Survivors include her son Randy Randall (Kim), daughter Lyn Randall (Bill Cannon), and son Joe Randall; grandchildren Kelley Randall Castaneda (Patrick), Taylor Randall Marlatt (Daniel), Jake Randall, and Griffin Randall (Syera); great-grandchildren Ava Wynne Castaneda, Jude Castaneda, Vale Castaneda, Henry Marlatt, Mack Marlatt and Rayne Randall; her double first cousin Don Taylor (the late Miriam S. Taylor); daughter-in-law Jeana R. Worley (Blaine), and numerous nieces and nephews.
Contributions in Bug’s memory may be made to the charity of your choice.

Gray Funeral Home of Clinton is in charge of arrangements.