Sen. Thurmond's physical stamina continued to be a source of amazement until his late 90s. Even then, he carried out his official duties with determined diligence. And despite his almost half-century in Washington, he never lost the personal touch that endeared him to generations of South Carolinians.

If you were native to this state, chances are the senator could make a personal connection with someone in your extended family whom he had known over his long and eventful life.

The senator had seen success before his 1954 election to the Senate, as governor, a judge, state legislator and educator. In 1948, he achieved national recognition as a presidential candidate, running under the banner of the States' Rights Party, better known as "Dixiecrat," and winning four states, including South Carolina. He soon returned to the political fold, but in 1964, became the first Southern Democrat in the Senate to make the shift to the Republican Party, to which he was more philosophically attuned.

It was the beginning of a change in the political landscape of the South, and the nation, that resonates today.

One of the most revealing decisions that Sen. Thurmond made was in World War II. Though 40 and, as a judge, exempt from active duty, he volunteered the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, joining the Army's 82nd Airborne Division. He landed behind enemy lines in a glider on D-Day.

A native of Edgefield, Sen. Thurmond is generally viewed as heir to the populist tradition begun by his neighbor, "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman. The senator's father was a close political ally of Sen. Tillman, whom Sen. Thurmond met as a lad.

But his politics lacked the class antagonisms that characterized Sen. Tillman's brand of populism. As governor, Sen. Thurmond was a progressive who improved education, access to health care and industrial development. In the Senate, Sen. Thurmond was a fiscal conservative who nevertheless used his influence to ensure that his state received its share of federal projects. He was one of the Senate's most consistent advocates for the military, and his constituent service was second to none.

And while he is still remembered for his extended filibuster of a civil rights bill in the Senate in 1957, Sen. Thurmond's views moderated with those of the state and region during that short period of remarkable change. In 1975, he became the South's first senator to recommend a black candidate, Matthew Perry, for a federal judgeship.

Sen. Thurmond made more than political headlines. His 1968 marriage to Nancy Moore, a beauty queen who was 44 years his junior, added to the senator's legend. The couple had four children.

The death of his eldest daughter, also named Nancy Moore, who was killed by a drunk driver in 1993, was one of the great tragedies of the senator's life.

Strom Thurmond was involved in the rough-and-tumble of South Carolina politics for most of his remarkable 100 years. But he remained a positive person. He genuinely liked people, and it was reciprocated in his personal contacts and at the polls.

Strom Thurmond has been a presence to generations of South Carolinians and for decades, he seemed to defy the aging process. Even as his advancing years became evident, the voters were willing to keep him in Washington. It wasn't merely the power of incumbency. South Carolinians recognized and valued his personal integrity and his devotion to the state and its citizens.