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Mills E. Godwin Jr.

Mills E. Godwin Jr.
Mills Godwin.jpg
60th & 62nd Governor of Virginia
In office
January 12, 1974 – January 14, 1978
Lieutenant John N. Dalton
Preceded by A. Linwood Holton Jr.
Succeeded by John N. Dalton
In office
January 15, 1966 – January 17, 1970
Lieutenant Fred G. Pollard
Preceded by Albertis S. Harrison Jr.
Succeeded by A. Linwood Holton Jr.
28th Lieutenant Governor of Virginia
In office
January 13, 1962 – January 15, 1966
Governor Albertis S. Harrison Jr.
Preceded by Allie E.S. Stephens
Succeeded by Fred G. Pollard
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates
In office
1952-1962
Personal details
Born Mills Edwin Godwin Jr.
(1914-11-19)November 19, 1914
Nansemond County, Virginia(now Suffolk, Virginia), U.S.
Died January 30, 1999(1999-01-30) (aged 84)
Newport News, Virginia
Resting place Cedar Hill Cemetery, Suffolk, Virginia
Political party Democratic (until 1973)
Republican (1973–1999)
Spouse(s) Katherine Thomas Beale (m. 1940–99)
Children Becky Godwin (1954-1968)
Residence Chuckatuck, Virginia
Alma mater College of William & Mary
Religion Congregationalist

Mills Edwin Godwin Jr. (November 19, 1914 – January 30, 1999) of Chuckatuck, Virginia, was an American politician who was the 60th and 62nd Governor of Virginia for two non-consecutive terms, from 1966 to 1970 and from 1974 to 1978.

In his first term, he was a member of the Democratic Party, and was the last Virginia governor elected as a part of the Byrd Organization, the conservative Democratic establishment that dominated the state's politics for over three decades. He was succeeded by A. Linwood Holton Jr., the first non-Democratic governor in over 80 years. By 1973, when he ran for a second term, Godwin had switched to the Republican Party, as the dominance of the Democrats in Virginia politics receded and the Byrd political machine had disintegrated. He was the first governor in the history of the United States to be elected as both a Democrat and a Republican.

Godwin was born in Nansemond County (now Suffolk, Virginia) and educated at the Norfolk Division of The College of William and Mary, now Old Dominion University and also received an LL.B. degree at the University of Virginia.

He married Katherine Thomas Beale of Holland, also in Nansemond County. They adopted one child, Becky Godwin (b. 1954). In August 1968, while Governor Godwin was attending the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, Becky and her mother were vacationing at the Oceanfront area of Virginia Beach when Becky was killed in a freak lightning accident.


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