A secret kept for 78 years will be etched in South Carolina stone within a matter of days.

Essie Mae Washington-Williams will become a permanent part of South Carolina history when her name is carved onto Strom Thurmond’s State House monument, recognizing the biracial retired schoolteacher as the one-time segregationist’s daughter.

Washington-Williams, 78, who now lives in California, kept her secret for decades before making headlines in December by telling the world she is the daughter of the late U.S. senator and a black maid in the Thurmond family’s Edgefield home.

The date to change the monument is not set, but Mike Sponhour, spokesman for the state Budget and Control Board, said Washington-Williams’ name will be added within the next few weeks as required by a bill sponsored by Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston.

“Essie Mae Washington-Williams is extremely honored that the Legislature has ratified the voice of the people of South Carolina,” said her lawyer Frank Wheaton. “Mrs. Williams looks forward to expressing her gratitude to the Legislature and the people of South Carolina.”

Ford’s bill passed the House and Senate this year and was signed June 18 by Gov. Mark Sanford. Like the monument itself, the cost of adding Washington-Williams’ name will be paid for with private funds.

Adding the name of a biracial child to a monument for a man who ran for president in 1948 on a segregationist platform was almost unthinkable until recently. Thurmond later changed his position on race and was the first Southern U.S. senator to hire a black aide.

But adding Washington-Williams’ name to Thurmond’s monument breaks new ground.

“The governor simply felt it was the right thing to do from the beginning of this process,” Sanford spokesman Will Folks said.

“This indicates there’s consensus in the General Assembly that it’s appropriate to add her name to the monument,” said Sen. John Courson, R-Richland, a longtime Thurmond family friend. “The lady has conducted herself with great class and dignity.”

Thurmond’s children formally accepted Washington-Williams into the family soon after she went public with her story. Thurmond died last June.

Efforts to reach the Thurmond family for comment Monday were unsuccessful.

Sponhour said the inscription on Thurmond’s monument saying he was the “father of four children” will be altered with epoxy.

“Essie Mae” will be chiseled below the names of the other children — Nancy Moore, Strom Jr., Julie and Paul — meaning she will not be listed in order of birth, as the others are.

The cost should not exceed $1,000, Sponhour said. The monument itself cost $850,000.

There has been nothing surrounding Ford’s bill matching the media frenzy around Washington-Williams when she told her story at a news conference in Columbia’s Adam’s Mark hotel.

As of Monday afternoon, no one had notified Washington-Williams that Ford’s bill had been signed into law, said Wheaton, her lawyer.

Washington-Williams said in December that she had waited decades to tell her story out of respect for her father, with whom she said she had a friendly relationship.

Washington-Williams first met Thurmond when she was 16. Afterward, they met occasionally in Columbia or Washington, D.C. Thurmond met her children — his first grandchildren — and he sometimes helped her financially, but he did not include her in his will.

Washington-Williams and her family would welcome a ceremony to mark the addition of her name to the statue, Wheaton said.

But no ceremony is planned at the moment, though several lawmakers said they would consider the idea. Ford said he thought a formal recognition would be appropriate.

“South Carolina’s got a lot of racial wounds, and a ceremony could go a long way to heal them,” Ford said. “If they do hold a ceremony, the whole General Assembly should come and watch.”

Reach Talhelm at (803) 771-8339 or jtalhelm@thestate.com. Lauren Markoe and Lee Bandy contributed to this report.