Thurmond's daughter speaks out; says telling secret has brought her peace of mind

By JACOB JORDAN, Associated Press Writer

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- The 78-year-old daughter of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond and a black maid said Wednesday that now that she has come forward to disclose her heritage, she is finally at peace.

At a news conference in her native South Carolina, Essie Mae Washington-Williams said she did not come forward earlier because she didn't want to jeopardize Thurmond's political career and family. "Throughout his life and mine we respected each other. ... I was sensitive about his well-being and his career."

"I am not bitter. I am not angry. In fact, there is a great sense of peace that has come over me in the past year," she said. "I feel as though a great weight has been lifted. I am Essie Mae Washington-Williams, and at last I feel completely free."

Williams announced last weekend she is the illegitimate daughter of Thurmond, a former segregationist, and Carrie Butler, a maid for the Thurmond family. Thurmond was 22 and Butler was 16 when Williams was born in 1925.

"I knew him beyond his public image," Williams said. "Certainly never did like the idea that he was a segregationist, but there was nothing I could do about it. That was his life."

However, Williams said, Thurmond never denied she was his daughter and gave her money throughout her life. She also said there were others who knew. "All of them on his staff knew exactly who I was," she said.

Williams is a retired teacher living in Los Angeles. She said she has four children, 13 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Thurmond's family said Monday they acknowledge Williams' claim, and the former senator's oldest son, U.S. Attorney Strom Thurmond Jr., said he would like to meet his half sister and start a relationship.

Williams said Wednesday she, too, would like to meet Thurmond's other children.

After Thurmond died in June at age 100, Williams said she began to think about ending "all the speculation and questions" about the long-rumored relationship.

Williams said her mother didn't tell her much about Thurmond and the relationship the two had. During an interview set to air on "60 Minutes II" on Wednesday night, Williams called it an "affair" and said her mother remembered Thurmond as "very nice person."

She recalled first meeting him in his Edgefield office when she was 16.

"Well, you look like one of my sisters," Williams recalled Thurmond saying. "You've got those cheekbones like our family."'

"So that was like almost an admission," Williams said.

She said Wednesday that she didn't know her father was white until her mother "introduced me. Then obviously, I knew."

In seven decades of politics, the former governor and senator gained fame and infamy as an arch-segregationist, but he later came to support a holiday for slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

E-mail this page

Print version

Back to the top