She really is an idiot

previous thread:
Strom's Daughter is an Idiot
http://www.ballistichelmet.org/pipermail/heads/2003-December/002055.html


She's 'carrying Strom's torch?'

She's courageous for having kept her 'explosive secret for so long?'

eh?

-x

Thurmond's Daughter Gets Tribute in S.C.
 
Feb 28, 10:45 PM (ET)

By EMMA RITCH 

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Essie Mae Washington-Williams, who revealed late last 
year she is the biracial daughter of late Sen. Strom Thurmond, was showered 
with praise from her family and others Saturday at a banquet to raise money 
for education.

Washington-Williams also finally met Thurmond's other children on her trip 
home to South Carolina, enjoying dinner and family talk Friday at the home of 
Strom Jr.

"It was a good visit, very fruitful," she said Saturday, but she brushed off 
more personal questions during her appearance Saturday night at historically 
black Allen University.

The sold-out, $50-a-person banquet turned into somewhat of a tribute to the 78-
year-old retired schoolteacher, who received repeated standing ovations from 
the crowd of about 500. Opening speakers talked about Washington-Williams' 
quiet dignity and her courage in keeping such an explosive secret for so long.

 
Cousin Bruce Elrod hugged Washington-Williams after she arrived at the banquet 
and said she is continuing her father's legacy with grace.

"She's carrying Strom's torch right now, and I'll tell you Strom would be very 
proud of her," Elrod said.

Late last year Washington-Williams confirmed long-standing rumors that she was 
born after Thurmond, then 22, had an affair with a 16-year-old black maid who 
worked in his family's Edgefield home.

Thurmond, who was 100 when he died in June, never publicly acknowledged 
Washington-Williams as his daughter, but his family has acknowledged her claim.

Washington-Williams, who lives in Los Angeles, spoke Saturday as part of the 
Tom Joyner Foundation Campaign, which raises money for historically black 
colleges and universities.

"My father, the late Sen. Thurmond, was a great proponent of education, and 
now so am I," Washington-Williams said.

Washington-Williams came to Columbia to start a college lecture series. She is 
also planning the release of a book about her life to be written by William 
Stadiem, who has co-written biographies of Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra. A 
movie will follow, Washington-Williams said.

Washington-Williams has said she was a teenager when she first met Thurmond 
and he visited her when she was at college in Orangeburg, just south of 
Columbia. Thurmond often gave Washington-Williams money when she hit hard 
times.

The former senator was once an avowed segregationist and ran for president in 
1948 as a Dixiecrat on the platform of maintaining separate schools for blacks 
and whites. Washington-Williams said she and her father spoke little of the 
issue of segregation. She said she didn't go public with the identity of her 
father because she didn't want to hurt his career.

Washington-Williams toured Columbia on Friday, visiting the Strom Thurmond 
Wellness Center on the University of South Carolina campus and the South 
Carolina Statehouse, where a statue of her father stands.

There has been talk about adding her name to the list of Thurmond's children 
engraved on that monument. Thurmond had four children with his second wife, 
Nancy. The oldest is 31-year-old Strom Thurmond Jr.

Washington-Williams said she would be honored to be added, but she hasn't 
asked for it.

"I'm not pushing it," she said Friday. "I'm not pushing anything, matter of 
fact." 


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