Thurmond's body will lie in state starting Sunday

James Gilchrist places a wreath made of magnolia leaves at the base of the Strom Thurmond statue in the center of Edgefield's town square Friday. Staff/Owen Riley Jr. e-mail this story to a friend Related Related stories: • Thurmond cut red tape • Town quietly mourns its favorite son

Thurmond died at 9:45 p.m. Thursday at the Edgefield County Hospital where he had occupied a two-room suite especially prepared for him after his retirement from the Senate in January. He was 100. At his retirement, he was the oldest and longest serving senator in U.S. history.

"Strom Thurmond was a man of the people and we encourage all South Carolinians to visit with the senator and his family at the Statehouse," state Sen. John Courson, R-Columbia, said at a press conference announcing preliminary funeral plans. "We will never see his like again."

There will be 16 hours of public visitation and lying-in-state from Sunday until the 1 p.m. Tuesday funeral for the World War II combat veteran and retired U.S. Army Reserve major general. Burial will be in Thurmond's native Edgefield.

Final details, including speakers and dignitaries to attend remain "a work in progress" in the hands of the senator's family, Courson said. The White House annoucned Friday evening that Vice President Dick Cheney would attend the funeral.

Little information emerged about the senator's final hours.

"They're very private with this," Courson said of Thurmond's family.

Sen. John Drummond, D-Ninety-Six, a life-long Thurmond friend, said he had visited briefly on Tuesday afternoon and it was clear that time was short.

"He just grunted when I talked to him (but) I think he understood me. I told him how much I loved him and how I was praying for him," said Drummond, 83, who once vied with Thurmond for the same woman's hand in post-World War II South Carolina. Drummond won. And he married her.

Courson, a long-time Thurmond friend and political ally, said it was his understanding that Thurmond's immediate family, including his estranged wife, Nancy, a former Miss South Carolina, and first grandchild, 11-day-old Martin Taylor Whitmer III, were present when Thurmond died.

The Thurmonds separated in 1990 after 22 years of marriage and four children: Nancy Moore, who was killed by a drunken driver in 1993; Julie, Paul, and Strom Jr., South Carolina's U.S. Attorney.

Thurmond Jr., who has been the family spokesman, wasn't taking calls.

The senator's first wife, Jean Crouch, died in 1960 after 13 years of marriage. They had no children.

The senator learned of daughter Julie's pregnancy at his 100th birthday party in Washington on Dec. 5 when she announced it to the crowd of 500 well-wishers.

Drummond said he didn't know if Thurmond saw or recognized the baby, nicknamed "Tate," but family members "were hoping he could last." The child was born June 16 in Washington. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, Thurmond's successor, said Thurmond saw the grandson last week also.

Thurmond's public career spanned nearly 74 years, from his election as Edgefield superintendent of schools in 1929 to his segregationist campaign for president in 1948 while serving as governor to a 48-year Senate career. Thurmond's public views on race softened later in life and he became the first Southern senator to hire a black aide.

After a career of opposition to civil rights legislation, Thurmond voted for the most recent extension of the Voting Act of 1965 and won re-election support from some blacks.

The basic outline of the military funeral had been under discussion for several months as the decline in Thurmond's health accelerated after his retirement in January, Courson said.

Thurmond's remains will be brought to the Statehouse's second floor on Sunday and will be placed adjacent to the bronze statue of John C. Calhoun, South Carolina's towering political figure of the 19th century.

The family will receive friends from 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday in the rotunda on the second floor of the Statehouse.

The formal lying-in-state will be from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday and from 9 to 11 a.m. on Tuesday when the casket will be placed on an artillery caisson for the procession to Columbia's First Baptist Church, four blocks away, via Gervais, Sumter and Hampton streets. The service in the 3,300-seat sanctuary will begin at 1 p.m.

Visitation, lying-in-state and the funeral will be open to the public, subject to security restrictions based upon what national figures attend. The State Law Enforcement Division is involved in security arrangements, Courson said.

Courson said the South Carolina Air and Army National Guard will be responsible for the visitation and lying-in-state and the Army Guard will staff the transfer of the casket by caisson to the church where representatives of the five branches of the military will take over as pallbearers.

After the service, Thurmond's remains will be transported to his hometown of Edgefield for interment in the family plot in Willowbrook Cemetery. Edgefield is 70 miles east of Columbia.

The symbolism that will mark the funeral also marked the press conference.

Courson stood at a lectern just 30 feet from the bronze statue of Thurmond, a large black ribbon and bow on its base, at the Statehouse complex's south side. Behind him, on the dome, the national and state flags flew at half-staff.

Day care teacher Gloria Bulluck had taken her class of 20, mostly Richland District 1 students, for a Statehouse visit and encountered Courson's press conference.

Thurmond's life, from his segregationist days to his altered views on race, provided a positive lesson she wanted her youngsters to absorb.

"He led people in the wrong direction, but then he came to the understanding that 'I was wrong,'" said Bulluck, who is known to her students as "Miss B."

Some of those students showed awareness of Thurmond.

"He represented our state," said Zandra Prezzy, 10.

Eric Adams, 9, said Thurmond was "a good man. He lived to 100."

The funeral service will be broadcast by South Carolina Educational Television and will be made available to commercial stations, Courson said.

Dan Hoover covers politics and can be reached at 298-4883.