Thurmond's estate estimated at $200,000

Posted Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - 5:59 pm


By Tim Smith
STAFF WRITER
mailto:tcsmith@greenvillenews.com



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Thurmond's will

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Strom Thurmond's will left his daughter $50,000, his wife $5,000 but no specific cash bequests to his two sons, court records show.

However, all three children of the late U.S. senator will split equally any money in the estate once all bequests are paid, according to the nine-page will filed in Aiken County Probate Court.

The will estimated the value of the estate at $200,000.

Thurmond died June 26 at the age of 100. He was the oldest and longest-serving U.S. Senator when he left office this year. He also served as a governor and state judge in South Carolina.

Thurmond's widow, Nancy Moore Thurmond, who separated from her husband in 1990, was forgiven any debts to her husband and will collect his pension payments from the Senate, U.S. Army and state government, according to the will. The will did not specify any debts nor did it total the amount of retirement pay.

She also was left his Ford station wagon and all his personal and household items from his home in Aiken.

His only surviving daughter, Julie Thurmond Whitmer, of Washington, D.C., is to receive $50,000 from the estate, the largest cash bequest. The Thurmonds' oldest daughter, Nancy, was killed in an accident in 1993.

Strom Thurmond Jr., his oldest son and the U.S. Attorney for South Carolina, was left half of the senator's clothing.

The other half will go to his other son, Paul Thurmond, a Charleston prosecutor, who also was left all personal and household items in the late senator's Alexandria, Va., condominium.

Neither of the two men could be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Other cash bequests in the will included: $5,000 each to his three sisters, Anna Gertrude Thurmond, who has died; Martha Bishop of Greenwood and Mary Thurmond Thompkins of Edgefield; $4,000 to his cousin, Thad Strom, of Alexandria, Va.; $4,000 each to two of his longtime aides, Warren Abernathy of Spartanburg and Duke Short of Alexandria; $3,000 to Harry Dent of West Columbia, a former chief of staff; and $2,000 to his former driver, James Graham of Hyattsville, Md.

The will leaves $1,000 to Kathryn Hook of Florence, a longtime receptionist; and $500 each to Sara Fox of Batesburg-Leesville, a former staffer and Sandra Courie of Columbia, a former personal secretary.

Two children of a former staffer, Holly Richardson, who died last year, each will receive $2,000.

His papers, medals and gifts that he received in Congress go to Clemson University's Strom Thurmond Institute. His books will go to Strom Thurmond High School in Edgefield.

Thurmond also left $250 bequests to the First Baptist churches in Aiken and Edgefield.

Tuesday, November 11  


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