Bo Callaway: A life in photos

Obituaries

Bo Callaway: A life in photos

A photo gallery of the life and times Bo Callaway, former Republican leader and cultivator and member of the Board of Trustees for Callaway Gardens. Callaway died on March 15, 2014.

Howard "Bo" Callaway was credited in 1964 with being the first Republican congressman from Georgia since 1875. In 1966, he almost became Georgia's first Republican governor.

"He was really the first star of the modern Republican Party in Georgia, the first one to give Republicans hope," Charles Bullock, a political scientist at the University of Georgia told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2003. "Until Bo Callaway came along, no one took Republicans seriously in this state."

Callway was born in 1927 in LaGrange, Ga. to Virginia Hand and Cason Jewell Callaway, founders of Callaway Gardens. After graduating from the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y. in 1949 and completing his military obligations in 1952, Callaway returned to Georgia to help his father develop and run Callaway Gardens.

But politics came calling in 1964, when Callaway switched his alligences from the Democratic party to the Republican party, then winning a congressional race. As the first Republican Congressman from Georgia since 1875, Callaway entered the gubernatorial race in 1966.

While Callaway received the most popular votes in the governor's race -- 453,665 to 450,665 for his opponent Lester Maddox -- neither he nor Maddox nor write-in Democrat Ellis Arnall won more than 50 percent of the vote, and the race was thrown into the state Legislature.

The General Assembly -- overwhelmingly dominated by the Democratic Party -- elected Maddox and Callaway's name never appeared on a Georgia ballot again. Here, an old poster from a Lester Maddox political campaign proclaimed that "Lesterine" (a play on words) was the only cure for "BO."

Callaway moved to Colorado during the seventies to run his family's Crested Butte Mountain Resort. He's seen in this 1966 file photo with his wife Elizabeth and their five children.

But Callaway couldn't get away from politics, Callaway served as secretary of the army in the Richard Nixon administration. In this 1973 photo, Callaway is sworn in to his post as his wife holds the bible.

In this file photo Callaway visits Ft. Campbell, Ky. accompanied by Col. Louis Menetrey (right).

Callaway went on to serve another term as secretary of the army during Gerald Ford's presidency. In this undated file photo, Callaway (left) stands behind Ford in a White House office.

Callaway pulls the lever at the 1975 West Point Dam dedication along the Chattahoochee River on the Alabama-Georgia border.

In this 1975 file photo, Callawy gives his last press conference.

Callaway would go on to head Gerald Ford's unsuccessful presidential campaign against Jimmy Carter in 1976. In 1980, he would finish second in the primary for a U.S. Senate seat in Colorado.

From 1987 to 1993, Callaway continued to support his Republican party, serving as the chairman of GOPAC, the fundraising and philosphical arm of the national Republican Party. Many credit Callaway with the organization's success. In this 2006 photo, Callaway signs an old gubernatorial campaign photo for then Rep. Joe Wilkinson (R-Sandy Springs) (right) who was the youngest paid member of Callaway's campaign staff during the gubernatorial election.

In 1994, Callaway returned to Georgia to run Callaway Gardens, a Georgia vacation resort. "If you build the finest building in the world, the next day it's getting less beautiful, less valuable; it's depreciating, " Callaway once told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "If you build a garden, the very next day it's prettier, it's bigger, it's growing."

As a member of the Board of Trustees, Callaway has watched the transformation of his father's dream: In 2008, the Gardens teamed up with long-time Atlanta developement agency Cousins Properties to build new homes on the 2,500 acre property. Here, Callaway stands with a portrait of his father, Cason. J. Callaway.

When asked if those political might-have-beens haunt his memories? Callaway told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "No, I don't look back, only ahead."

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Howard "Bo" Callaway was credited in 1964 with being the first Republican congressman from Georgia since 1875. In 1966, he almost became Georgia's first Republican governor.

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