Endicott Peabody Endicott Peabody ( February 15 , 1920 – December 1 , 1997 ) was the 62nd Governor of Massachusetts from January 3 , 1963 to January 7 , 1965 . Early life . Endicott Peabody , nicknamed " Chub " , was born in Lawrence , Massachusetts , to Mary Elizabeth ( née Parkman ) and Malcolm Endicott Peabody . He was a grandson of the founder of the Groton School and Brooks School , also named Endicott Peabody . He earned his B . A . from Harvard College in 1942 . An All - American star defensive lineman for the Harvard football team , he was later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame . Peabody served in the United States Navy during World War II . He received the Silver Star for gallantry for service as a Lieutenant aboard the USS Tirante . After the war Peabody attended Harvard Law School , receiving his J . D . degree and attaining admission to the Massachusetts bar in 1948 . Peabody was Assistant Regional Counsel for the Office of Price Stabilization and Regional Counsel for the Small Defense Plants Administration in the early 1950s . A Democrat , from 1954 to 1956 he served on the Massachusetts Governor ' s Council . In 1962 he was elected Governor , upsetting Republican Governor John Volpe by only 4 , 431 votes out of over two million cast . He served a single two - year term , but in 1964 fellow Democrat Lieutenant Governor Francis X . Bellotti defeated him in the Democratic primary , and then lost the general election to Volpe . In 1966 he ran for a seat in the United States Senate and lost by a wide margin to then - state Attorney General Edward Brooke . Also , during the United States presidential election , 1960 he coordinated John F . Kennedy ' s Presidential campaigns in West Virginia , Pennsylvania , and New Hampshire Tenure as Governor . During his administration as Governor , voters approved a state constitutional amendment extending the terms of office of all state constitutional offices from two years to four years , effective with the 1966 election . Peabody advocated laws to prevent discrimination in housing and to establish drug addiction treatment programs . He also strongly opposed capital punishment , and " vowed that he would not sign a death warrant even for the Boston Strangler , if he were ever caught and convicted . " In September , 1964 , Peabody was defeated in the Democratic primary by Lieutenant Governor Francis X . Bellotti and , therefore , did not stand for election to a second term . It was front page news around the country on April 1 , 1964 when the governor ' s 72 - year - old mother , Mary Parkman Peabody , was arrested at the Ponce de Leon Motor Lodge in St . Augustine , Florida for attempting to be served in an integrated group at a racially segregated restaurant . This made Mrs . Peabody a hero to the civil rights movement , and brought the efforts in St . Augustine — the nation ' s oldest city — to national and international attention . The story of her arrest is told in many books including one by her arrest companion , Hester Campbell , entitled " Four for Freedom " . Peabody is remembered for recommending the commutation of every death sentence that he reviewed while serving as governor between 1963 and 1965 , in connection with his efforts to get the Legislature to abolish the death penalty . Senate campaign . In 1966 , Peabody successfully sought the Democratic nomination for the U . S . Senate seat for Massachusetts , which was open that year ; he was defeated by a landslide in the general election by Edward Brooke . 1972 presidential election . Peabody undertook an extremely quixotic campaign for Vice President of the United States on the Democratic ticket in 1972 ; he came in fourth in the balloting at the 1972 Democratic National Convention . He ran under the slogan " Endicott Peabody , the number one man for the number two job . " New Hampshire . In 1983 , he moved to Hollis , New Hampshire , where he ran , unsuccessfully , for local and statewide political office several times . He died from leukemia in 1997 in Hollis , New Hampshire , aged 77 . His remains were interred in Groton , Massachusetts . Family . On June 24 , 1944 he married Barbara Welch Gibbons ( born 1922 ) , a native of Bermuda , the elder daughter of Morris Gibbons and his wife , the former Maude Madge Welch ; they had a daughter , Barbara , and two sons , Robert and Endicott Jr .