Josh Meltzer | The Roanoke Times

Meecie Hutcheson (center) greets former Virginia Gov. Linwood Holton after he spoke about his memoir to a group at Christ Lutheran Church in Roanoke last month.

File 1969 | The Roanoke Times

Linwood Holton (from left), with his wife, Jinks, was conflicted over President Nixon.

File 1970 | The New York Times

Linwood Holton (right), shown with daughter Tayloe, was the first Republican governor of Virginia in the 20th century. He voluntarily enrolled his school-age children in predominantly black Richmond public schools, an effort that served as a counterpoint to Southern images of resistance to desegregation.

Josh Meltzer | The Roanoke Times

RICHMOND -- During his history-making term as Virginia's governor in the early 1970s, Linwood Holton forged a friendship with acclaimed Thomas Jefferson biographer Dumas Malone.

"Every time I went to the Charlottesville area, I would call him up and say, 'Well, have you got any Virginia Gentleman handy?' " Holton said with a chuckle. "And his response was, 'Come on over, governor, the ice will be out by the time you get here.' "

The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian had more than a drink to offer Holton. Malone also had sage advice for Virginia's first Republican governor since Reconstruction.

"He said, 'Governor, be sure to write your memoirs. Otherwise, your perspective will never be known,' " Holton said in an interview last week. "That kept nudging me all through the years -- 'Holton, you've got to get this done.' "

Now 84, Holton eventually got it done, more than three decades after completing a gubernatorial term that was a pivotal period in Virginia history. His book, "Opportunity Time," was published by University of Virginia Press and released this spring.

The memoir covers Holton's journey from the coalfields of far Southwest Virginia to fulfilling his dream of winning the state's highest political office -- a dream nurtured during the two decades he lived in Roanoke. The book is a punctuation mark on a legacy defined by Holton's dogged efforts to end one-party political rule and racial divisions in the state.

"My election as a Republican was, in itself, a culmination of efforts to create two-party democracy in Virginia, but little did I then realize what a wonderful panorama of opportunities would be presented during the next four years," Holton wrote of his 1969 election.

Holton presided over the creation of the gubernatorial Cabinet system and significant steps toward cleaning up the state's rivers and developing the ports at Hampton Roads. The achievement he puts at the top of his list was helping Virginia "turn its back on its discriminatory past and become a model of race relations."

"Linwood Holton was a wonderful man and he really had some style," said Ray Garland, a Republican who represented Roanoke in the House of Delegates during Holton's gubernatorial term. "I've always been sorry that he just had the one term as governor."

Holton's governorship arguably is best remembered for his response to a court-ordered school busing controversy during his first year in office. The Holtons voluntarily enrolled their school-age children in predominantly black Richmond public schools. A photo of the governor escorting his daughter Tayloe into John F. Kennedy High School on Aug. 31, 1970, made the front page of The New York Times.

Holton's public act signaled that Virginia no longer would resist federal court orders designed to end racial segregation of public schools. The move set him apart from some firebrand governors in the South and created friction with conservatives who often would butt heads with the progressive Republican.

"That was a symbol that was juxtaposed, I'm very proud to say, against [former Alabama Gov.] George Wallace and others in the South," Holton said. "And, as I say in the book, it was something I knew was right at the time. I knew history would sanction exactly what we did. And it was a thrilling experience because I recognized what it was for history."

Holton's children also consider the experience rewarding, said the former governor's daughter Anne.

"It was a very special opportunity to be included in something that mattered," said Anne Holton, who is married to Gov. Tim Kaine. "And I think my parents did a good job of helping us think of it that way."

Holton's act was viewed as extraordinary. But, based on his book, it should not have surprised those who had followed his rise in Republican politics.

More than a decade earlier, Holton had repudiated the policy of "massive resistance" embraced by Virginia Democratic leaders in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in the Brown v. Board of Education case.

While campaigning for a House of Delegates seat representing Roanoke in 1957, Holton and fellow GOP House candidate Hazel Barger bought a full-page ad in The Roanoke Times on the Sunday before the election. As Holton recalled in the book, the ad's banner headline read: "KEEP OUR SCHOOLS OPEN."

"In the end, we lost to trashy rhetoric, but we were right," Holton wrote.

He waged two unsuccessful campaigns for the House and a losing bid for governor before finally reaching his career goal in 1969. With each campaign, he expanded a political base that helped end the dominance of a Democratic political organization built by former governor and U.S. Sen. Harry Byrd Sr.

A native of Big Stone Gap, Holton settled in Roanoke after graduating from Harvard Law School because he considered the city a good place to launch a political career. Roanoke was a young city without a strong Democratic tradition and "a place where I thought the public would be open and listen to the idea that we need to strengthen the two-party system," Holton said.

But Roanoke was more than Holton's political launching pad. It's also where he met Virginia "Jinks" Rogers, his wife of 55 years. They now live on the Northern Neck peninsula in eastern Virginia, near the shore of the Chesapeake Bay.

"Roanoke was very good to me," Holton said.

He left the front lines of politics after an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 1978. But he has remained active, both as an unsparing critic of the Republican Party and a mentor to the Democratic governor who married his daughter.

"He's my political role model," Kaine said. "I don't have any others."

Holton's memoir includes chapters on his relationships with former President Nixon and U.S. Sen. John Warner, and Kaine's 2005 election as governor.

Holton remains conflicted about Nixon, who campaigned for Holton and was admired by the governor for his intellect and political gifts. But Nixon's embrace of the "Southern Strategy," which helped bring segregationist Democrats into the GOP fold in the 1970s, deeply disappointed Holton. The Watergate scandal that ended Nixon's presidency "reflected a deep-seated paranoia," Holton wrote.

Holton is gracious when it comes to Warner, a man he first met during their days as students at Washington and Lee University and later competed against for the U.S. Senate nomination. He called Warner "an outstanding senator" and praised him for an independent streak that has sometimes generated a backlash from conservatives.

The release of Holton's book has allowed the former governor to reintroduce himself to Virginians, and Holton said he is happy with the response his memoir has received. He also delighted in some joint appearances with his son Woody, a University of Richmond history professor whose book, "Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution," was a 2007 National Book Award Finalist.

Holton did not rely on a ghostwriter to shape his thoughts into prose. He instead dictated his recollections into a hand-held recorder and his wife transcribed them. Holton had help organizing the material into chapters, but said "there was no substantive editing of this book."

And despite being out of office for more than three decades, Holton said he didn't need to comb through archives to reconstruct the details of his years in the governor's mansion.

"It was a very important and exciting time for me, and I feel like I can live it again, almost," Holton said.