Vice President Dick Cheney got it right when he predicted there would never be another political career like that of Strom Thurmond's "unless medical science unlocks the secret of his vitality and energy."

According to the vice president, Sen. Thurmond lived under 18 presidents, serving with 10 in the U.S. Senate. He won a one-of-a-kind write-in election to the Senate in 1954, and went on to break records there for age and longevity. And before he became senator, he had been a teacher, judge, war hero and governor.

The recurring theme of the memorial tributes was a defense of the senator on civil rights. It was particularly appropriate in view of the ugly and unfair way he has been depicted by some writers and cartoonists since his death last week. Sen. Thurmond, his defenders said, had long left his segregationist past behind. They couldn't have been more credible.

Richland Sen. Kay Patterson, a Democrat and an African-American, extolled the senator for helping to keep historically black colleges open in South Carolina and the nation. He added, "It was Strom that came to the assistance and aid of my constituents on active military duty along with veterans having problems with the Veterans Administration. ... It was Strom that helped my constituents with drainage and sewer projects."

No one was more eloquent about Strom Thurmond's change of heart or the goodness of his life than Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware. He brought laughter to the several thousand gathered in Columbia's First Baptist Church when he suggested that Sen. Thurmond was having the last laugh when he picked a "Northeast liberal" to be among those who would celebrate his life. And celebrate him he did.

Sen. Thurmond, he said, was a complex man with whom he became a close friend during their long Senate association. Sen. Biden watched his colleague change on civil rights, and said that the "change came to him easily. I believe he welcomed it ..."

Sen. Biden praised Sen. Thurmond's loyalty and integrity, as did others who spoke at the funeral service. "With me," he said, "it is deeply personal. He stood by me when others didn't, against his political interests." Sen. Biden was alluding to the political problems he faced in the fall of 1987 when he was briefly a presidential candidate, and also was chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork.

Strom Thurmond was remembered Tuesday as a good, kind man who understood the art of compromise and bore no malice.

He should also be remembered as a strong supporter of national defense and as a defender of the Constitution. As Vice President Cheney noted, the superior quality of our military owes something to Sen. Thurmond's support of the armed forces in the Senate.

His longtime friend Bettis Rainsford of Edgefield recalled that when he saw the senator on one of the last days of his life, he was so frail he could hardly move, but that his parting words were, "Is there anything I can do for you?" That was Strom Thurmond.