Atlanta ? Former Gov. S. Ernest Vandiver, who won office vowing “no, not one” black child would integrate a Georgia classroom, but went on to preside over peaceful desegregation, has died at age 86.

He died Monday evening, the family said Tuesday through Gov. Sonny Perdue’s office.

Perdue ordered state flags lowered to half-staff. Vandiver’s body will lie in state today at the state Capitol.

Governor from 1959 to 1963, Vandiver had been elected on an anti-integration platform, but at a critical moment he 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 he said later that keeping the schools open was “my political suicide.”

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.

Vandiver ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 1972, and he blamed his defeat on the “No, not one” statement.

In 2001, at a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the University of Georgia’s integration, Vandiver declared, “When I ran for governor, I made some intemperate remarks. They shouldn’t have been made.”