Obituary: Strom Thurmond

Thurmond: Colourful private life

Strom Thurmond served longer in the United States Senate and at a more advanced age than any other American.

There even arose the astonishing, bizarre possibility that, at the age of 97, he might become his country's president.

That prospect, albeit remote, dawned on America in the new millennium, as the most extraordinary presidential election ever was pursued in its final stages through the Florida courts.

If no winner were to emerge in time to take the oath of office, Strom Thurmond, as president pro tempore - basically the oldest Senator around - could end up as acting leader of the western world on 20 January 2001.

The United States was spared that embarrassment, but even when George W Bush did finally move into the White House, Senator Thurmond continued to enjoy a power he had never experienced in his prime.

As he approached his century, each appearance on Capitol Hill of the aged Republican from South Carolina was studied closely.

For it was likely that his death would result in the Democrat governor appointing a Democrat in Thurmond's place, shifting control of the finely-balanced Senate from the Republicans.

Behind enemy lines

Strom Thurmond did once run for president. Objecting to the 1948 nomination of Harry S Truman by the Democratic Party, he ran as the Dixiecrat candidate, breakaway Democrats flying the Confederate flag.

Along with his native South Carolina, he won three other southern states, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

He was born in December 1902, in Edgefield, South Carolina. After graduating with a degree in horticulture, he was a teacher and athletics coach before becoming the local superintendent of education.

He studied law at night with his father, was admitted to the bar in 1930 and served as both city and county attorney.

Two years later, Strom Thurmond was elected to the South Carolina Senate and was appointed a circuit judge before the United States entered World War II. D-Day found him with an airborne division, dropping behind enemy lines in Normandy.

Marathon monologue

In 1946, Thurmond was elected Governor of South Carolina, returning to the life of a lawyer before being elected to the Senate in 1954 by a write-in vote, the only person to attain a seat by that method.

During his many years in the Senate, he served as chairman of the Judiciary and Armed Services Committee, while his political beliefs seemed to experience the most radical transformation.

Once regarded as a defender of white supremacy, he said, "There are not enough troops in the Army to force Southern people to admit the Negroes into our theatres, swimming pools and homes."

In 1957, in a record still unbroken, Thurmond engaged in a one-man filibuster against a civil rights bill, speaking for 24 hours and 18 minutes.

He switched from the Democratic Party to the Republicans in 1964 and aided Barry Goldwater in his unsuccessful bid for the presidency against Lyndon Johnson. And Thurmond was instrumental in the "southern strategy" that won the White House for Richard Nixon in 1968.

Vigorous veteran

But by the time the Voting Rights Act was up for renewal in 1982, Thurmond was behind what he had once opposed, either out of enlightenment or political expediency. By 1983, he was supporting a federal holiday for Martin Luther King Jr.

But it was his colourful private life that provoked most interest among Americans. He was always a vigorous man. When he was young, he ran 20 miles in ill-fitting canvas shoes, continuing even after his toenails came off.

He rarely drank alcohol, rejected coffee and tobacco and was proud of his physical strength. Even in his late nineties, he would refuse to be seen publicly in a wheelchair.

And, despite his deafness, he refused to use a hearing aid in the Senate, which meant his aides would have to keep him informed of the proceedings.

One of Strom Thurmond's greatest passions was women. He was married twice.

His first wife died in 1960 and eight years later, when he was 68, he married the 22-year-old Miss South Carolina, and had four children by her before they separated in 1991. But few women were safe from his advances.

To some Americans, Strom Thurmond, who was around when Mark Twain was alive, was a lecherous, race-baiting segregationist.

But in South Carolina, where a 17-foot statue of the Senator was erected outside the State Capitol, to many people he was adored as a senator who never said no to a constituent, respected as a patriot and celebrated as a rascal.