Mary Elizabeth Muhleman Chichester

1930 - 2025

Mary Elizabeth Muhleman Chichester

December 11, 1930 - February 22, 2025

Mary Elizabeth Muhleman Chichester, "Mary Beth", departed this life on February 22, 2025. She was born in Richmond on December 11, 1930, the daughter of Marie Hardwick Muhleman and Albert Kenton Muhleman.

For all her long and happy life, Mary Beth loved living in Richmond, except for brief periods of time in Boston for college, Charlottesville for her husband Deo's law degree, and Norfolk for his officer training school, Mary Beth spent her 94 years in Richmond. She may have been a patriotic American but made no apologies for her firm belief that Virginia was the fairest state, and that the city of Richmond was ground zero for all the beauties and traditions of the Commonwealth. Mary Beth had the remarkable ability to explain the intricacies of Richmond ancestry, who was related to whom, what their entire family did, and what streets everyone grew up on. Mary Beth was a walking encyclopedia of twentieth-century Richmond and beyond.

Her childhood years were spent in the Fan, and adolescent years in the West End. At 14-years-old, she met a 14-year-old boy named Randolph Bolling Chichester "Deo" at a dance. Somehow, after that neither one of them ever looked at another person, and seven years later, they were married in St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in 1953. The Chichester marriage lasted 65 years, and produced five children, thirteen grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren.

Mary Beth loved many things: all University of Virginia sports, playing tennis (a game she played tenaciously for 55 years, and excelled in), watching tennis (especially Roger Federer), arranging flowers, every baby she ever saw, and most of all, her family. She worked at her sister's retail store "Marcy's" and later at "Jermie's", where she would conduct the store's business, but more importantly socialize with patrons/friends about the latest news in the city.

Mary Beth was active in the Junior League of Richmond, the Boxwood Garden Club, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and a member of the Country Club of Virginia. She graduated from St. Catherine's School in Richmond and attended Wheelock College in Boston.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Randolph Bolling Chichester; son, Randolph Bolling Chichester Jr.; daughter, Elizabeth Chichester Pressley; sister, Marcella Hardwick Muhleman; and brother, Albert Kenton Muhleman, Jr. She is survived by her children, Anne Chichester Lyle (Robin), Molly Chichester Welch (Jim), and John Randolph Kenton Chichester (Chase); as well as her thirteen grandchildren; and ten great-grandchildren.

A graveside service will be held on Saturday, March 8th, at 2 p.m. in Hollywood Cemetery, 412 S. Cherry St., Richmond, VA 23220.

The family asks that, in lieu of flowers, memorials be made to either St. James's Episcopal Church, 1205 West Franklin St., Richmond, VA 23220, or St. Catherine's School, 6001 Grove Ave., Richmond VA 23226.