Crowd pays last respects; Thurmond to be buried Tuesday

Carole Wise, a 1972 graduate of Strom Thurmond High School in Edgefield County, waits to pay her respects at the Statehouse in Columbia. (TANYA ACKERMAN/Staff) e-mail this story to a friend Related Related stories: • Thurmond formed peacekeeping unit Online extra • Photo gallery

Sixty-five hours and 45 minutes after Thurmond died Thursday night in Edgefield County Hospital at age 100, mourners who knew him or just knew of him began filing past his casket under the dome inside the Statehouse.

Thurmond's estranged wife, Nancy, and three surviving children, Strom Jr., Julie and Paul, received mourners from 4 to 8 p.m. in the Statehouse's second-floor lobby.

The senator's casket arrived from Edgefield at 1:30 p.m. and was carried up the south steps by a seven-member honor guard from the Army and Air National Guard.

At 4 p.m., the line snaked more than 100 yards, often two and three deep, from the public entrance under the north steps, around to the south steps. An hour later, the line was only marginally shorter, and new arrivals could be seen approaching from all directions.

The Everett Johnson family of Aiken waited more than two hours to enter the building. Johnson's son, Rhett, 28, was a close high school friend of Paul Thurmond and was a frequent guest in the Thurmond home.

"You don't appreciate him until times like this," the younger Johnson said.

Everett Johnson said visitors were allowed to pause at the casket before moving on. He said the Thurmond family stood to the right of the casket. They included Nancy, Strom Jr. and his wife, Julie and her husband, and Paul and his fiancee, Everett Johnson said. He said the family had "handled it well, like they handle everything else. They're a strong family."

Private visitation

State Government Protective Services officials said 1,170 people had passed by the casket when the doors were locked at 8 p.m.

Reporters and photographers were allowed into the Statehouse from 3 to 3:30 p.m. and then were ushered out. A memo to the media from state Sen. John Courson, R-Columbia, who has handled press relations for the funeral, described the visitation as private and asked the media to honor the family's wishes.

Courson called it "a huge turnout, more than I expected" in light of a patriotic observance that was expected to attract thousands to Williams-Brice Stadium Sunday night.

He said the Thurmond family "is in a period of mourning, but to their credit stood for four hours and would have remained had there been people waiting at eight o'clock."

Eric and Mary Ruschky were first in a line of hundreds, some of whom waited hours outside the Statehouse in 90-degree heat to pay their respects.

Eric Ruschky is an assistant U.S. attorney under Strom Thurmond Jr. Their daughter, Jane, 25, an assistant Richland County solicitor, joined them in the three-hour wait for the doors to open.

Behind them were Anne Love and Betty Dent, wife of Harry Dent, a former Thurmond aide.

"I'm here because I remember Strom with such fondness," said Love, who, like so many South Carolinians, once worked for Thurmond during his 48-year Senate career.

For Dent, the day brought "a flood of memories of happy days with the senator."

Leah Sandiford, 38, standing under a blue and white umbrella near the head of the line, came because her grandmother had been a babysitter for the senator's young children. Although she didn't know Thurmond, Sandiford said, "he did a lot to help people. He was so responsive to their needs."

Visitors weren't allowed to take photographs and all had to pass through tighter-than-usual Statehouse security.

Near Calhoun

The casket was placed 12 feet from the statue of John C. Calhoun, who dominated South Carolina politics in the 19th century as Thurmond did in the 20th. The Senate chamber, where he served from 1933-38 during Franklin D. Roosevelt's first and second terms, was just steps away. One flight down was the governor's office he occupied from 1947-51.

Thurmond had been in the U.S. Senate from 1954 until his retirement in January as the oldest and longest serving member of that body.

To the right of the catafalque was a framed shadow box containing Thurmond's military rank insignia — from the gold bar of a 39-year-old World War II second lieutenant to the two stars of a retired Army Reserve major general — and his medals, from Purple Heart to paratrooper's wings. Two urns flanking the casket, each encircled by a blue ribbon, held huge arrangements of red and white roses.

The flag-draped casket was placed longitudinally, head to the west, feet to the east, on the ornate room's marble floor.

Members of the honor guard formed a semicircle in front of it. The detail's commander, Maj. Tim Webb of Camden, stood off to the side at parade rest, but every five minutes would walk 10 measured paces, about-face and return.

Behind the casket were eight flags — national, state, branches of the military and Thurmond's major general's flag, two white stars on a field of red framed by gold fringe.

In front was an oil portrait of a middle-aged Thurmond.

Mourners passed between the casket and the portrait.

Outside, on the south side of the Statehouse complex, others continued to add flowers and mementos to the base of Thurmond's statue.

A major's red and gold dress epaulets, a pot of yellow mums adorned by a blue and white "Thanks, Strom" bumper sticker, and a large stand of red and white carnations surrounded the Confederate battle flag emblem of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Thurmond will lie in state from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. today and from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Tuesday, when his casket will be placed on an artillery caisson for the four-block procession to the 3,300-seat First Baptist Church for the 1 p.m. funeral service.

Vice President Dick Cheney, a large contingent of U.S. senators and much of the state's political establishment, along with friends and others whose lives were touched by Thurmond during a 74-year public career, are expected to fill the church.

Courson said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta will also attend the funeral service.

Burial will be later in the day in the family plot at Willowbrook Cemetery in his native Edgefield.

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