CHARLESTON, S.C. - A lawyer representing the biracial daughter of the late Strom Thurmond says a challenge could be filed to claim part his estate.

When Thurmond, the longest-serving member of the U.S. Senate, died in 2003 at 100, his will left nothing to Essie Mae Washington Williams, his daughter from a relationship with a black maid who worked at his family's Edgefield home.

Her lawyer, Frank Wheaton, said a challenge could follow if documents emerge that show Thurmond intended to leave the 79-year-old Los Angeles woman with a portion of his estate.

"If in fact the late senator decided not to include her, then so be it," Wheaton told The Post and Courier of Charleston. But if he did wish to include her, "we would want whatever the senator's intent was ... to be carried out accordingly."

Thurmond's three other surviving children are in a will that disposes of an estate valued at $1.48 million. That's just under the level where federal estate taxes are imposed, Wheaton said.

In the past, Washington Williams has said her decision to come forward was not related to making a claim on Thurmond's estate.

Thurmond, who became one of the nation's most visible segregationists, paid for the Washington Williams' college education and made numerous loans and financial gifts that spanned several decades. But he never publicly acknowledged he was her father.

"Without question, the senator provided for (Washington Williams) for at least 62 years," Wheaton said. "He loved his daughter, and his daughter loved him."

The two infrequently met, but Washington Williams often wrote her father and he would help her monetarily or in other ways.

In her recent book, "Dear Sen.," Washington Williams says she was frustrated by the distance between them that was never bridged.

"Yes, he had changed, and so had the world, but he and I had never so much as sat down together for a meal," she wrote, describing her feelings when he died.