Claiborne, Retired Bishop of Atlanta, Dies
Episcopal News Service. March 13, 1986 [86052]
ATLANTA (DPS, March 13) -- The Rt. Rev. Randolph Royall Claiborne, Jr., who served as bishop of Atlanta from 1953-1972, died on Feb. 22.
Born in Farmville, Va. on Nov. 7, 1906, Claiborne was the son of the Rev. Randolph Claiborne and Mary Thomas Clark. He attended the University of Virginia, from which he received a B.A. in 1928, and Virginia Theological Seminary, from which he received a B.D. in 1931 and a D.D. in 1950. In 1949, he received a D.D. from the University of the South.
Claiborne was ordained to the diaconate in June 1931 and to the priesthood in January of the following year. He served as rector of St. James' Episcopal Church, Macon, and priest-in-charge of St. Andrew's Church, Fort Valley, Ga. from 1931-1938. From there, he went to Alabama, where he served as rector of the Church of the Nativity, Huntsville, and priest-in-charge of St. Luke's, Scottsboro, from 1938-1949.
In 1949, Claiborne was elected Suffragan Bishop of Alabama. He was consecrated as suffragan on June 29, 1949 and served in that office until 1953, at which time he was elected Bishop of Atlanta. On June 9, 1955, he married Clara Virginia Kinney Stribling.
From his retirement in 1972 until his death, Claiborne was Bishop Emeritus of Atlanta, where he continued to maintain his residence.
Claiborne was succeeded as Bishop of Atlanta by the Rt. Rev. Bennett J. Sims, who served from 1972 until 1983. The present Bishop of Atlanta is the Rt. Rev. Charles Judson Child, Jr.