Karen Randlev

Karen Randlev of Hancock passed away peacefully after a short illness on Saturday January 4th, 2025. She was born in Evanston Illinois to the late George and Ethyle Randlev on August 4th, 1941. After graduating from Cornell University with a Bachelor’s degree in English, and then briefly working at the Pentagon as a translator of Thai, she married Chip Donnelly and had one son, Hank Donnelly.

After the death of her husband in 1968, Karen taught English for several years at Garrison Forest School, then moved first to Seattle and then to Alaska. Living among the Athabascan and Inuit tribes in central Alaska and the North Slope, she developed a great appreciation of them and their culture and created several volumes of poetry drawn from her life among them.

In the early-80s she returned to the lower 48, settling near her family in northern California, where she resided for more than twenty years. She worked as a school teacher in the Albany and Richmond school districts and lived in the Bay Area, first in Oakland, then Berkeley, and then Emeryville. She also received a Master’s degree in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University and was for a while enrolled in the Ph.D. program for education at the University of California, Berkeley.

In 1991, she married Ira Smith and relocated to Mill Valley in the north bay. During this time, although she retired from teaching, she kept an active hand in secondary education helping design curricula and advising high school students on college admissions.

In 2005, she returned to the east coast, settling in Hancock near her son and grandchildren. She shared the family home with her son residing there until she relocated to Homewood at Williamsport.

Throughout her life she loved to read and talk about books and was always interested in a good conversation.

She is survived by her son Hank Donnelly, her daughter-in-law Julie Donnelly, her grandchildren Maeve and Erik Donnelly, as well as her sister, Kristen Bodie (of Concord, CA), her brother-in-law Steve Bodie, and their children, Mia, Terrik, and Noelle.

There will be no formal memorial service, and the interment will be privately held at a future date.

The family would like to express their thanks to the staff of Homewood, the doctors and nurses who supported her care, and Hospice of Washington County.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations in Karen’s name to Hospice of Washington County, 1710 Underpass Way, Suite 300, Hagerstown, MD 21740, 301-791-6360.

Arrangements were entrusted to Grove-Rogowski Funeral Home, 141 West Main Street, Hancock, MD 21750. Online condolences can be made to the family at www.grfuneralhome.net.