Town quietly mourns its favorite son

In her Edgefield home Friday afternoon, below a portrait of her brother Strom Thurmond, 94-year-old Mary Tompkins points out some of the photographic mementos she has of her brother and herself. Staff/Owen Riley Jr. e-mail this story to a friend Related Related stories: • Thurmond to lie in state in Columbia • Thurmond cut red tape

A photo of the senator wearing a cowboy hat and riding a horse through town during a Peach Festival sits on her television among photos of family members. A large portrait of Thurmond in his black judge's robe hangs on one wall while another portrait of him wearing a suit is displayed next to the door.

"It's bad to lose a brother," said Tompkins, 94, as she sat in her Edgefield home with two friends. "We always agreed on things. He was so helpful in every way."

Tompkins said she was "delighted" that Thurmond came back to Edgefield in January after retiring from the U.S. Senate. He was born here on Dec. 5, 1902.

"I thought it was the only thing for him to do," she said. "He loved Edgefield, and I think Edgefield loved him."

Edgefield schools Superintendent Sharon Keesley, who was visiting Tompkins — her fifth grade teacher — said Thurmond handed her diploma to her when she graduated from high school in 1970.

"He was a giant," she said. "I hope we'll always be remembered as the home of Sen. Thurmond."

Despite Thurmond's age, his death still cast a somber mood in the town, she added.

"We always knew it was coming, but we didn't want it to," she said.

James Gilchrist delivered a wreath of magnolia leaves with a bow of white ribbon Friday morning to the base of Thurmond's statue in the town square.

The employee of Edgefield Floral said he did not hear of Thurmond's death from the news. He didn't have to.

"I figured it out when I drove into town."

Aside from the wreath, one bundle of carnations was laid at the statue along with a single red rose with a small card addressed to "Sen. Thurmond's family."

"Edgefield has a relatively quiet feel to it anyway," said local potter and historian Stephen Ferrell as he stood among the various olive green pots at Old Edgefield Pottery. "But the quiet is unusual today because Friday is our busiest day."

Aside from a swarm of television news trucks lined up around the town center, not much else was happening in the town where America's oldest senator began and ended his life.

It was also quiet at the Thurmond family plot at Willowbrook Cemetery, where Thurmond will be buried Tuesday. No visitors were seen around the square patch of grass surrounded by a black iron fence next to a cedar tree. Groundskeepers cut grass around the tombstones.

One worker, Eugene Martin, said he had graduated from J. Strom Thurmond High School in 1977. He said Thurmond's fame was important to residents.

"I'm glad he's from Edgefield," he said. "A lot of big-name people come from California, or New York, or Washington."

Media trucks were parked outside Edgefield County Hospital, where Thurmond spent the last six months and where he died Thursday. Inside, hospital Chief Executive Officer Sam Gregory said Thurmond liked to participate in birthday parties, singing groups and other social activities with the other patients.

"He insisted on being a part of it," he said. He added that so many people wanted to visit the senator that the family had to impose visitation restrictions.

"A community of this size, people just wanted to drop in."

Bettis Rainsford, a Thurmond family friend who made many of the arrangements to bring the senator home, said he saw Thurmond hours before his death. His friend was fading, he said, but he remembered him.

"It's the end of an age," Rainsford said as he sat in his downtown office.

The community paid its respects by flying flags at half mast in front of their homes, businesses and fire stations. A single white ribbon hung at the corner of Columbia Road, where Tompkins lives just blocks from the house where Thurmond was born.

Next door to Tompkins, Eddie Lou Quarles sat on her front porch. She said her husband's family worked on cotton plantations that belonged to members of Thurmond's extended family. The senator used his influence to help her son-in-law get a disability check.

For her, Thurmond's segregationist past could be forgiven. And his peaceful death Thursday night was sign that God forgave it too, she said.

"He helped so many people," said Quarles, 79. "When you have made amends with the people, God is ready for you then."