COLUMBIA, S.C. - Steady drizzle didn't stop thousands of residents from lining the streets Tuesday to catch a glimpse of the casket of former U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond as the horse-drawn caisson made its way from the Statehouse to the church.

Thurmond, who died Thursday, was to be eulogized by several national dignitaries, including Vice President Dick Cheney, before being buried in the family plot in Edgefield, the town where he was born 100 years ago.

A staunch segregationist in the middle of the 20th century, Thurmond's views slowly changed through the years and he was able to maintain his office as well as gain the loyalty of many South Carolinians. He was the oldest and longest-serving senator ever when he retired earlier this year after 48 years in Washington.

When visitation opened at 9 a.m. Tuesday, a line of people outside the capitol where Thurmond was lying in state stretched about 100 feet. Many mourners were dressed formally and planned to attend the funeral later in the day.

Albert Jabs, a professor at the historically black Allen University in Columbia, was waiting in line. He said he hoped any discussion of Thurmond's legacy will focus on reconciliation.

"Even a crooked line can be made straight over time," Jabs said.

On Sunday, 1,186 people stopped at the Statehouse to pay their respects to the family during the four-hour visitation. Although Thurmond's survivors were absent Monday, 3,396 mourners passed by.

Jan Hammond of Irmo was in line Tuesday for the second time since Thurmond's body was brought to the capitol. She had come Sunday to pay respects directly his family.

Now a school board member in Lexington District 1, Hammond credits Thurmond for getting her involved in politics and is grateful he allowed her to work on his staff when she was in graduate school in the 1970s.

"He was a great model for young people, I hope that kind of dedication to service doesn't disappear now," she said.

Some relatives also came to the Statehouse on Tuesday. Thurmond's nephew, James Allan Bishop, drove from Marietta, Ga., and planned to attend the funeral.

"He helped everybody in our family," Bishop said. "He was real good to his family, he was a father figure to us, but his real legacy is he treated everyone in South Carolina like his family."

Thurmond had a knack for remembering faces and names during his decades of public life. Since his death, people have been quick to remember him.

In the 1930s, Robert Griffith delivered papers to the office of the young Edgefield lawyer who would become a governor and senator.

"I was always glad to collect from Mr. Thurmond. He would occasionally give me a quarter and tell me to keep the change," Griffith said. "No one else ever did that. Money was close in those days."

No one else did a lot of things Thurmond did. He bolted from the Democratic Party to form a segregationist Dixiecrat party. He won an unheard of write-in campaign to win his first term as a U.S. senator.

Along the way, his views on race changed and winning every re-election bid enlarged his power and influence. He was a World War II veteran and served for years on the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee.

In addition to Cheney, Tucker Eskew, the South Carolinian who heads the White House Office of Global Communications; former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan.; and former top Thurmond aide Duke Short were flying from Washington on official planes.

An Army band played the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" on Tuesday as military pall bearers carried the casket down the south side of the Statehouse. An honor guard carried the flags of the United States, South Carolina and all military branches.

The family followed behind the casket, holding hands and getting noticeably doused by the rain on the way to the limousine. Thurmond's wife, Nancy, was flanked by their two sons and the couple's daughter, Julie, was on the outside of one of her brothers. Last month, Julie gave birth to a son; it was Thurmond's first grandchild.

The American flag on the casket was covered with plastic to guard it from the drizzle.

After the funeral, Thurmond was to be buried in his hometown of Edgefield about 70 miles away.