1. Mills Godwin was the last Virginia governor elected as a part of the Byrd Machine, the conservative Democratic establishment that dominated the state's politics for over three decades.
20 Facts About Mills Godwin
1. 2.
Mills Godwin was succeeded by Linwood Holton, the first non-Democratic governor in over 80 years.
3.
Mills Godwin was educated at Old Dominion University and received an LL.
4.
Mills Godwin served in the Senate of Virginia between 1952 and 1962 and was the lieutenant governor between 1962 and 1966.
5.
In 1965, Mills Godwin took the Democratic nomination for governor unopposed, without a primary election.
6.
Mills Godwin managed the US Senate campaign of Harry F Byrd Jr.
7.
Mills Godwin was denied a seat at the Democratic state convention in 1972, and he was a member in the Texas organization of "Democrats for Nixon," supporting Republican Richard Nixon over the Democratic presidential nominee, George McGovern.
8.
Former governor Mills Godwin was persuaded to run again by conservative Republicans who saw him as the most likely candidate to beat Howell.
9.
The Virginia Constitution prohibits incumbent governors for running for consecutive reelection; Mills Godwin became the only Virginia governor to be elected to two terms in the 20th century.
10.
In December 1975, Governor Mills Godwin ordered the James River and its tributaries closed to fishing from Richmond to the Chesapeake Bay.
11.
In 1976, Governor Godwin supported the bid of President Gerald R Ford Jr.
12.
The Virginia Republican Party convention of that year elected a largely pro-Reagan delegation to the 1976 Republican National Convention, although as a courtesy Godwin was designated as co-chairman of the delegation.
13.
Mills Godwin married Katherine Thomas Beale of Holland, in Nansemond County.
14.
Mills Godwin died in 1999 of pneumonia and is buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Suffolk.
15.
Mills Godwin was a leader of the "massive resistance" movement, which used state laws to close schools rather than comply with federal orders to open them to black students.
16.
Mills Godwin died in 1999, when he was 84, and never publicly apologized for his support of segregated schools.
17.
Mills Godwin Drive is located in the city of Manassas, Virginia.
18.
The Mills Godwin Building on the Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale campus is named for him.
19.
The church dedicated a section of the church to Mills Godwin known as the Mills Godwin Building.
20.
Mills Godwin Hall on the campus of James Madison University was completed in 1972 and was dedicated in honor of Mills Godwin and his wife Katherine, who was a graduate of the university.