Becky Godwin

Who was Becky Godwin?

Rebecca 'Becky' Godwin was the adopted daughter and only child of the then Governor of Virginia Mills E. Godwin, Jr. and Katherine Beale Godwin, of Chuckatuck, Virginia, a small community then in Nansemond County which is now a part of Suffolk.

In August 1968, Becky Godwin, aged fourteen, was spending a day with her mother at Virginia Beach while her father, then in his first term as Virginia governor, attended the 1968 Democratic Convention. With the customary state police nearby, she had just stepped out of the surf onto the sand when she was struck by lightning. Several people were in the vicinity either on the beach or in the surf, but Godwin was the only one affected. It was a clear sunny day with no storms in the area. Although rushed to a hospital, she never regained consciousness.