Free Republic

WASHINGTON — The biracial daughter of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond more than once confronted her father over his racist politics, but cherished their relationship and ignored pleas from her family that she expose her parentage. "For all his bluster, for all his racist campaign posturing, I somehow couldn't dislike him the way I wanted to," writes Essie Mae Washington-Williams, 79, in "Dear Senator," an autobiography to be released next month. The daughter of the longtime champion of segregation and his family's black maid has refrained from speaking publicly since she revealed the secret of her birth. That was a...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- "I always thought I had a fairly normal childhood, until I found out my parents weren't who I thought they were." So begins the autobiography of Essie Mae Washington Williams, the daughter of longtime U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond and a 16-year-old black maid who worked at his family's home. Williams, now 79, came forward a year ago, after Thurmond's death, with the secret she had held for more than 70 years. Her upcoming book, "Dear Senator: A Memoir by the Daughter of Strom Thurmond," deals frankly with her relationship with the one-time segregationist who privately acknowledged...

Strom Thurmond Continued: The Known World of Ms. Washington-Williams By BRENT STAPLES Published: July 17, 2004 If newspapers reach the afterlife, then Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina is having a fitful time in that great Senate chamber in the sky. Mr. Thurmond, who died last year at the age of 100, spent half of the 20th century fending off the rumor that he had fathered a child of Carrie Butler, a black maid who worked in his family's home during the 1920's. He had been dead less than a year when Ms. Butler's daughter, a retired teacher named Essie...

Thurmond's biracial daughter earned her spot on monument. With little fanfare, Essie Mae Washington Williams, accompanied by her daughter, returned three months ago to her roots in Edgefield County. According to a front-page article in the weekly Edgefield Advertiser ... she visited the grave of her late father, U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, and paid calls on relatives and friends of both her parents. Last week, her name was added to that of the four other Thurmond children on the senator's monument on the State House grounds in Columbia. What also should be recorded for posterity is what a remarkable woman...

There was a story that the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond never tired of telling his fellow members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. It was about how, in April 1865, after the tattered survivors of Gen. Robert E. Lee's army stacked their rifles in surrender at Appomattox, his grandfather, George Washington Thurmond, walked more than 300 miles back to his farm in Edgefield County, S.C. Now, Thurmond's mixed-race daughter, Essie Mae Washington Williams, is taking action to claim her share of that heritage. She's planning to apply to join the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a 109-year-old organization whose...

Essie Mae Washington-Williams, a biracial woman who stepped forward last year to acknowledge that she was the daughter of the late Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, now wants to join the United Daughters of the Confederacy, an organization of descendants of soldiers who fought for the South in the Civil War. Evidently she is eligible: Senator Thurmond, once a fierce segregationist, was a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a similar group for men. Ms. Washington-Williams, a 78-year-old retired teacher who lives in Los Angeles, also plans to apply for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution...

The biracial daughter of the late Strom Thurmond is pursuing membership in the United Daughters of the Confederacy - a group founded to honor the memory of those who fought for the South in the Civil War. Essie Mae Washington-Williams will make the application based on her relationship to Thurmond, whose ancestors fought for the Confederacy. Male members of her family also will seek to join the Sons of Confederate Veterans, of which Thurmond was a member, said Frank Wheaton, her attorney. "Through my father's line, I am fortunate to trace my heritage back to the birth of our nation...

State Senate Gives Approval To Add Essie Mae To Thurmond Monument Columbia - Essie Mae Williams moved one step closer to joining her brothers and sisters on a Statehouse monument honoring their late father, US Senator Strom Thurmond. The state Senate (website) gave key approval to adding the name of Williams, Thurmond's biracial daughter. The Senate gave second reading to the bill sponsored by state Senator Robert Ford of Charleston. Williams came forward last year and announced she is the daughter of the late senator. Her mother was a black 16 year old housekeeper who worked in the Thurmond...