Linwood Holton (left) with his daughter Tayloe on the way to school in 1970.

The Death of an American Hero

Linwood Holton, Virginia's former governor who died at 98 yesterday, was a genuine American hero when America needed all the heroes it could get.

I had the honor of knowing him for some years, partly because my favorite ex-wife's family was close to the Holtons and we had dinner occasionally, and partly because I was assigned to his good son, Woody, when Woody was an intern at The Roanoke Times. Woody later became a historian, an author, and a professor at VCU. I met Holton's daughter Anne, the former Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth, later and admired her greatly, as well.

Holton and son-in-law Tim Kaine.

Holton first came to my attention when I saw an AP Wirephoto of him walking his high school-age daughter Tayloe to school in Richmond (photo above). That wouldn't normally have been unusual, except that the Holtons insisted on sending their children to public schools at a time when violence and protest were the order of the day as integration insinuated itself into the conversation.

Holton was a Republican (who first ran for public office as a Roanoke lawyer) because it was a default setting in the Star City, not so much because he was dyed-in-the-wool. 

Linwood, of course, watched in horror as the Virginia GOP took a hard swing to the right with George Allen and they was mortified with the presidencies of Bush and Trump (I'm not sure how he felt about Reagan; I never asked and he never offered, but I doubt he was enthusiastic about the B-movie actor as president).

He was a long-time supporter of John Warner, Virginia's GOP Senator, and a man whose views were similar to his own. Holton went so far as to endorse people like Democrats Mark Warner and Tim Kaine (his son-in-law) for governor and the U.S. Senate.

The best I can say about Linwood is that he was a good man, an honorable man. He nearly became vice president under Richard Nixon, and ultimately president when Nixon resigned. When Spiro Agnew disgraced the office of Vice President, Nixon considered appointing Linwood to fill the spot, but settled on Gerald Ford, a completely non-controversial figure who had never done anything of note as a member of congress. Meaning he hadn't pissed anybody off.

Would that we could find some Republicans today who believe Linwood Holton got it right, but I've looked hard, overturned rocks, looked in closets and could only find people who admire Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Green. Linwood would not have cared for them and their ilk. He had entirely too much honor, dignity and a stable ethical base.