Also, the state's largest historically black college announced that 78-year-old Essie Mae Washington-Williams would receive an honorary degree during commencement ceremonies Friday.

Washington-Williams came forward last year and announced she is the daughter of the late senator and former governor who died last summer at 100. Her mother was a black 16-year-old housekeeper who worked in the Thurmond family home in Edgefield. Thurmond was 22 years old when Washington-Williams was born.

She attended South Carolina State University for three years upon her father's recommendation and financial help. She was scheduled to return Friday to receive an honorary degree from the college she left after meeting her late husband there. The couple headed to California, where Washington-Williams currently lives.

She continued her education at California State University-Los Angeles, and received a master's degree in education from the University of Southern California.

South Carolina State's board of trustees and administration came up with the idea for the honorary degree, said spokeswoman Cheryl Washington.

"They felt that this was a great way to honor a woman who showed tremendous courage for having to be in the spotlight so suddenly," Washington said. "It takes a special person to deal with what she had to deal with."

Washington-Williams' attorney Frank Wheaton said a book is expected in 2005 with a CBS movie to follow in the spring. He wouldn't say exactly how much money she would be receiving, but described the financial support as "healthy, generous six-figure advances."

After announcing in December she was the daughter of the one-time segregationist, Washington-Williams has had at least one paid speaking engagement and her likeness appears on a commemorative coin.

She has met with some of the Thurmond family and has plans to meet with them again during her return trip, Wheaton said.

Washington-Williams said she was a teenager when she first met Thurmond and he visited her when she was at college in Orangeburg, just south of Columbia, where he was governor.

She said they spoke little of the issue of segregation -- Thurmond ran for president in 1948 as a Dixiecrat on the platform of maintaining separate schools for blacks and whites. He never publicly acknowledged her and went on to have four children with his second wife, Nancy.

Their names are etched in stone on Thurmond's monument at the Statehouse in Columbia, but plans are advancing to add a fifth name.

The bill has already passed the state Senate, and legislators are confident it will pass this House this session.

"There's plenty enough time to get this through," said Rep. Joe. E. Brown, D-Columbia, a black legislator who supports the bill.

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