Report: Lester Maddox 'gravely ill'

ATLANTA - Former Gov. Lester Maddox, 87, one of the Old South's last segregation governors, was gravely ill at an Atlanta hospice Tuesday, said a family friend who wished to be unnamed.

Maddox has suffered numerous illnesses since leaving the public spotlight, including cancer, a stroke, kidney stones, two heart attacks and an intestinal blockage.

The Marietta Daily Journal reported in Tuesday's edition that Maddox suffered two cracked ribs at an assisted living home about 10 days ago, where he was recovering from intestinal surgery, and later developed pneumonia.

Maddox, a high school dropout born in a working-class section of Atlanta, gained national notoriety for chasing away several blacks from his Pickrick fried chicken restaurant in Atlanta in July 1964, the day after the Civil Rights Act was signed into law.

Though he had never held public office, Maddox won the Democratic nomination for governor in 1966. In the November general election, Maddox was out-polled by a Republican, but a write-in campaign assured that neither candidate had a majority. Election law at the time through the election to the Democratic Legislature, which elected Maddox.

Despite fears of racial strife, Maddox steered a moderate course for four years. Barred from seeking a second term, he ran for and won the state's No. 2 post, lieutenant governor.

A comeback bid failed in 1974 and Maddox ran his final race in 1990, finishing last in a five-person race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, drawing just 3 percent of the vote.