He was, perhaps, his own best character. And the one he rarely wrote about.
The "younger son of an Anniston Star cop reporter" (as he often described himself), Randy Hall had a life rich in the details he loved to bring to the public's stage as a playwright and journalist. There was humor, sharp and bitingly accurate. There was drama and tragedy that gave his personality a filament of steel. Couple that with a love of words, places and all things interesting, and the script was written for a life that would never qualify as humdrum.
"He wouldn't want anyone to think he was an angel, a pushover," said Tom Potts Jr., a longtime friend and fellow theater collaborator. "He was certainly a very opinionated guy who had a lot of emotionally strong views on a lot of issues. Just about anything really. Nothing boring about being around Randy."
Mr. Hall died Tuesday night in the house where he grew up. He was surrounded by the collections of books, ceramics and antiques he'd gathered during much of his 52 years. His interests, tastes and standards were many, and they were reflected in almost everything he did and said.
"Randy is the last in a newspaper family, each of whom were not only an archive of local events and names, but a library of current topics and ageless literature," said H. Brandt Ayers, chairman and publisher of The Anniston Star. "In too rapid, too unfair succession, the gifts of father, Cody, and mother, Barbie, were taken from the pages of The Star. Now Randy's irreplaceable art is finished. The Hall library is closed."
For Anniston, much of Mr. Hall's impact was felt in the area's arts world, Potts and others said. The author of five plays and enthusiast to most things artistic, Mr. Hall was a mentor to many who wished to find their way in performance.
"Randy has been kind of an unsung hero throughout the arts community for years," Potts said. "Certainly he was a playwright for audiences across the country, but it went way past that."
He helped found the current community theater group, CAST, the Community Actors' Studio Theater, which recently gave him its first-ever Edel Y. Ayers Award for his lifelong commitment to the arts and humanities in our community. The award was established many years ago to recognize extraordinary individual efforts toward enhancing cultural arts in Calhoun County and joined an accolade Mr. Hall had previously earned, the Governor's Arts Award from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.
"In addition to resurrecting local community theatre in Calhoun County by founding CAST, Randy has written a number of plays which have delighted and entertained audiences here and throughout the South," Potts said in announcing the award. "Over the years, he has continually given his art, his perspective, his time, his heart and his money to the betterment of our community through the arts."
As a fan of the written word, Mr. Hall enjoyed reading - and discussing - a variety of topics. A single conversation about English houses, gardens, food or travel could easily span an hour before segueing, somehow, into another subject, whether it be about work, the arts or life and its vagaries in general.
As a writer, Mr. Hall was gifted at distilling many emotions into a few phrases. He was born in Memphis, Tenn., but grew up on Forest Lane. The east Anniston neighborhood, his family and relationships with friends provided fertile material for his writing and plays, which included Grover, Arts & Leisure, The Widow's Best Friend, The Camellia Ball and Black Warrior. Discussing his work fired his imagination, and one of his favorite pastimes was discussing and debating the quirks of the human spirit.
Mr. Hall's full-time job was as an editor and writer at The Anniston Star, which had enjoyed contributions from his father, Cody Hall, and mother, Barbara Hodge Hall, for the better part of five decades. His education at the University of Alabama and at Temple University in Philadelphia gave him a wide background of experience from which to draw. His last position was as a commentary writer, but much of his time was spent on The Star's news desk.
"He contributed an awful lot in both the operation of the desk and in ideas for improving the way we handled copy," said George Evans, former news editor. "We had a good working relationship for, I guess, almost three decades."
During his tenure at the paper, Mr. Hall worked as a reporter, copy editor, news editor, associate features editor and commentary writer. Some of his most remembered pieces were reviews and columns, one of which recalled boyhood days in Anniston and the progression of life.
Mr. Hall is survived by his sister, Mary Hall Marchewka of El Segundo, Calif.; his brother, John Cody Hall of Tuscaloosa; a niece, Anne Hall Marchewka of El Segundo; a nephew, Dryden Cody Hall of Tuscaloosa, and a brother-in-law, Terry Marchewka of El Segundo.
Services will be noon Saturday at First Presbyterian Church in Anniston. The family will receive friends in the church parlor one hour prior to the service. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Hospice of East Alabama, 818 Leighton Ave., Anniston.
