James Strom Thurmond Sr. (December 5, 1902 – June 26, 2003) was an American politician. He was the oldest serving member of the United States Senate to date and the only senator to reach 100 while in office. He was also Governor of his home state South Carolina and a Presidential candidate. He was a lawyer.

Thurmond spent more than 70 years of his life on public career. Before World War II he served as state senator and judge. During war he served in the US Army in Europe and briefly in Asia. In 1960 he was promoted to the rank of major general.

Early life
Thurmond was born on December 5, 1902 in Edgefield, South Carolina. His family used to own slaves, including ancestors of Al Sharpton. He studied at Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina. Thurmond graduated in 1923. He was married to Jean Crouch from 1947 until they divorced in 1960. Then he was married to Nancy Moore from 1968 until his death in 2003. He had five children.

Career

From 1947 to 1951 he served as Governor of South Carolina (as a Democrat). During 1948 U.S. Presidential Election he became the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party faction called "Dixiecrat" (States Rights Democrat, mostly from the South) - people who supported racial segregation and opposed civil rights laws. Thurmond and his Vice Presidential candidate, Mississippi Governor Fielding Lewis Wright finished the race in 3rd (behind Harry Truman and Thomas E. Dewey) with 39 electoral votes and they carried 4 states (Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and, of course, Thurmond's home state).

In 1957, he filibustered (delayed) the 1957 civil rights act for 24 hours. Despite the long hours, he failed and the bill passed.

He was elected, as first write-in candidate for major national office, to the Senate in 1954. He was reelected for his first full term in 1956 and served until January 2003. He was originally a Democrat, but in 1964 he openly supported Barry Goldwater's presidential bid and became a Republican.

Later career
As the longest serving Republican he was President pro tempore of the United States Senate for three occasions (1981-1987, 1995-2001, and January 2001-June 2001), when Republican gained a majority. After Democrats took over the control of the Senate in June 2001 Thurmond became first honorary "president pro tempore emeritus".

Longevity
 
Thurmond turned 100 years old on December 5, 2002, while still in office, the oldest person ever to serve in the U.S. Senate.

Started his career as opponent of racial integration, in his later years Thurmond supported desegregation.

His longtime Senate rival, Robert Byrd of West Virginia surpassed Thurmond's record of length of senatorial service in 2006. Byrd died in 2010.

Essie Mae Washington-Williams
After Thurmond's death in 2003, an attorney for his family confirmed that in 1925, when he was 22, Thurmond fathered a mixed-race daughter, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, with his family's housekeeper, Cassie Butler, then 16 years old. Thurmond paid for the girl's college education and provided other support. Washington-Williams died in February 2013 at the age of 87.

Death
Thurmond died in his sleep on June 26, 2003, at 9:45 p.m. of heart failure at a hospital in Edgefield, South Carolina. He was 100 years old. Then-Senator Joe Biden delivered a eulogy, and later to the family burial plot in Willowbrook Cemetery in Edgefield, where he was buried.

References

Other websites

Strom Thurmond Institute at Clemson University 
U.S. Senate historical page on Strom Thurmond
SCIway Biography of Strom Thurmond
NGA Biography of Strom Thurmond 
Oral History Interview with Strom Thurmond from Oral Histories of the American South
Strom Thurmond Foundation, Inc.
Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony for the Presidential Citizens Medal – January 18, 1989 
Booknotes interview with Nadine Cohodas on Strom Thurmond and the Politics of Southern Change, April 4, 1993. 
Complete transcript and audio and video of Sen. Joe Biden's Eulogy for Strom Thurmond

Articles
Strom Thurmond's family confirms paternity claim, By David Mattingly, CNN.com, December 15, 2003
The Scarred Stone: The Strom Thurmond Monument by Joseph Crespino, Emory University, April 29, 2010

Obituaries
Tribute to Strom Thurmond from The State  — June 26, 2003
, CNN, June 26, 2003
Strom Thurmond Dead at 100, By James Di Liberto Jr., Fox News, June 26, 2003

1902 births
2003 deaths
American centenarians
American generals
American military personnel of World War II
Deans of the United States Senate
Deaths from heart failure
Governors of South Carolina
Presidents pro tempore of the United States Senate
Purple Heart recipients
Presidential Citizens Medal recipients
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
United States senators from South Carolina
US Democratic Party politicians
US Republican Party politicians
South Carolina Republicans