File video of former Gov. Earnest Vandiver speaking to supporters S. Earnest Vandiver Vintage Portrait S. Earnest Vandiver

Former Gov. S. Ernest Vandiver was laid to rest after a funeral at Lavonia First Baptist Church in Franklin County. His flag-draped coffin was carried into the church located in the rural county were he was born 86 years ago.

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Some 450 well-wishers, including Gov. Sonny Perdue and Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, turned out to pay their final respects to Vandiver, who died in his sleep Monday night at his Lavonia home after a long battle with congestive heart failure.

State leaders got a personal look at their colleague as the city he grew up in and retired to remembered his life and influence during Thursday's funeral service.

"The people of this community have lost a native son, whose influence is still to come," said the Rev. Richard Bielski, who was a close friend to the former governor.

Serving from 1959 to 1963, Vandiver had been elected on an anti-integration platform, but at a critical moment persuaded lawmakers to repeal a law requiring schools to be closed rather than desegregated.

The Democrat's stand was credited with sparing Georgia the turbulence that swept much of the rest of the South in that period, but it cost him political support. He left office when his four-year term ended, and said later that keeping the schools open was "my political suicide."

His "no, not one" phrase had been devised by Vandiver's strategists to counter criticism from pro-segregation voters after he had said integration of Georgia's schools should "evolve." Years later, he acknowledged the speech was probably unnecessary, since he was virtually assured of election as the front runner against a weak field.

Once elected, Vandiver quickly found himself facing a series of federal court rulings that forced the integration first of Atlanta public schools and then of the University of Georgia.

The casket carrying former Gov. Vandier is carried into the church Ernest Vandiver Funeral Scene

Complying with the integration orders, however, meant schools would be closed because of a 1955 law requiring state funds to be cut off to any college or school admitting a black student.

To cool charged emotions, Vandiver appointed a special commission that held hearings throughout the state.

Then, days after the courts ordered the desegregation of the University of Georgia in 1961, Vandiver called a special nighttime session of the Legislature and persuaded lawmakers to repeal the 1955 antidesegregation law.

Channel 2 Action News reporter Carol Sbarge contributed to this report.