Howard "Bo" Callaway, who in 1964 became the first Republican elected to Congress from Georgia since Reconstruction, and who two years later was denied the governorship of the state even though he garnered the highest number of votes in the general election, is hospitalized in intensive care with a cerebral hemorrhage.
Callaway was hospitalized in Columbus, Wednesday night and transported to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta after complaining of a severe headache, according to an advisory from Callaway Gardens Sunday. Callaway, 85, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and underwent emergency surgery. He is currently in ICU, according to the advisory.
“Your thoughts and prayers are appreciated at this time,” said his son Edward Callaway, Chairman of the Board/CEO of Callaway Gardens.
Callaway's election to Congress propelled him into the 1966 race for governor, according to reports published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Lester Maddox won the Democratic primary. Callaway ran with an updated, upscale image that was conservative but less strident than the old Democratic segregationists like Maddox, according to the AJC. Former Gov. Ellis Arnall, who had lost the Democratic primary, tried to rally liberal and moderate Democrats with a write-in campaign.
Callaway got the most votes: 453,665 to 450,665 for Maddox and 57,699 for Arnall. The state constitution said if no one got a majority, the Legislature elected the governor. That was subsequently changed. Callaway lost a challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court and Maddox was given the governorship by the Democrat dominated state legislature.
Callaway also served as Secretary of the Army under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford and headed Ford’s 1976 campaign committee.
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