The Welsh Liberal Democrat politician Jenny Randerson has died at 76.

Baroness Randerson was elected in 1999 and represented Cardiff Central, beating Labour candidate Mark Drakeford for the seat.

She represented the party in the then Welsh Assembly – now the Senedd – from 1999 to 2011 and served in the Welsh Labour-Lib Dem administration of the 2000-2003 Welsh Assembly government.

Welsh Lib Dem leader Jane Dodds said her work as a minister “left an indelible mark on our politics and society”.

Ms Dodds added she would be “deeply missed by her family, friends, colleagues, and the many individuals whose lives she touched through her public service”.

“From free entry to Wales’s national museums to the decision to build Wales Millennium Centre, Jenny dedicated her life to serving the people of Cardiff and Wales.”

The former leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Kirsty Williams told BBC Radio Wales that Baroness Randerson’s influence was “significant, but, as always with Jenny, it was done in a very quiet and understated way”.

She said: “Her contribution to both the Lib Dems in Wales, latterly the Liberal Democrats across the UK, but also to Welsh politics at the dawn of devolution is significant.”

Williams, who met Baroness Randerson as a young activist in the Liberal Democrats in the 1990s, said she was struck by the number of younger people who had spoken of the mentorship she provided to them when she was a very busy politician herself.

Baroness Randerson began her career in education as a secondary school teacher and later as a lecturer at Coleg Glan Hafren in Cardiff.

She also served as a Cardiff councillor from 1983 to 2000, helping to grow the Welsh Liberal Democrat party’s presence in the capital and leading the council’s official opposition for four years.

She became the first female Liberal Democrat minister anywhere in the UK as Minister for Culture, Sport and the Welsh Language from 2000 to 2003 and was acting deputy first minister from July 2001 to June 2002.

The party said she was “instrumental in introducing a cultural strategy aimed at promoting the Welsh language”.

After stepping down from the Assembly in 2011, she was appointed a life peer.

In the House of Lords, she continued her commitment to public service, notably serving as parliamentary under secretary of state for Wales.

She was the first ever female Welsh Liberal Democrat to hold ministerial office at Westminster and the first Welsh Liberal to hold a UK ministerial post since Gwilym Lloyd-George in 1945.

Beyond politics, Baroness Randerson served as Chancellor of Cardiff University and was also a patron of various charities including Wales Council for Deaf People, the Cardiff and Vale Youth Wind Band and the African Mothers’ Foundation.

Cardiff University’s vice-chancellor Prof Wendy Larner said she was a “longstanding friend and advocate for the university and for the benefits of higher education” and that she would be “deeply missed”.

Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Cardiff Council Rodney Berman called her a “terrific mentor” and said the party owed her a debt of gratitude.

Mr Berman added that her “contribution to Welsh life and to politics over many decades has been nothing short of immense”.