COLUMBIA--They came for the historical significance, to offer the family condolences, to pay their respects to the man who may have been South Carolina's most favorite son.

WADE SPEES/STAFF An honor guard stands watch Sunday in the Statehouse by the flag-draped casket of former U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond.

Alan Byars took his young family to the Statehouse on Sunday to see former U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond lie in state for a much simpler reason.

"Because he was my senator and he was a South Carolinian," Byars, of Cayce, said. "I didn't know him, but he's helped us quite a lot."

Hundreds of folks, some who knew him, some who just voted for him, and even some who were related to him, stood in line for up to three hours to view Thurmond's U.S. flag-draped coffin.

Thurmond died Thursday at the age of 100 in his hometown of Edgefield.

The Statehouse on Sunday served as a shrine to the man. A military honor guard surrounded the coffin, which lay almost directly beneath the Statehouse dome in the second-floor lobby. Nearby, a portrait of the former governor, presidential candidate and senator stood on an easel, a shadow box of his military medals propped up nearby.

It was a quiet, somber scene as members of Thurmond's family, "still distraught" at the death of a man who personified a century of South Carolina politics, received family and friends for four hours.

"Strom Thurmond was a man of the people, and the family wanted to give people the chance to pay their respects," said state Sen. John Courson, a friend of the family.

Eric and Jane Ruschky were first in line when the doors opened at 4 p.m. Eric Ruschky, who works in Thurmond's office, said it was the first time he had seen any of the family members since Thursday.

"They looked good," Ruschky said. "Strom Jr. was first in line. He was the point man."

Outside the Statehouse, the line ran halfway around the building at times, past an ambulance and a military water dispenser. To get in, visitors had to pass through a metal detector, which is standard procedure at the Capitol every day. Some who didn't want to wait in line stopped by the monument to Thurmond on the Statehouse grounds that was decorated with a black ribbon and flowers.

Inside the Statehouse, the receiving line snaked through the first-floor lobby, up one set of stairs, past the family and the casket and down another set of stairs. Before leaving, visitors signed one of 10 guest books coordinated by the Shellhouse Funeral Home in Aiken.

WADE SPEES/STAFF Gov. Mark Sanford and wife Jenny greet Howard and Clara Snider and their children Leslie, 9, (left) and Lauren, 11, after paying their respects to former Sen. Strom Thurmond and his family Sunday.

Lowcountry natives and now Columbia residents Howard and Clara Snider brought their two daughters, age 9 and 11, for educational purposes.

"It's a history lesson for the children," Howard Snider said. "In years to come, this will be remembered as an important moment for the state and we just want to be a part of it."

Gov. Mark Sanford and his wife, Jenny, paid their respects at 4:30 and signed the guest book without talking to the media. A half-hour later, Thurmond's successor, Sen. Lindsey Graham, passed through the lobby.

As people waited in line, they talked about things Thurmond had done for them or their friends, the time they had met him, or how he was able to serve out a final term that some people did not think he could finish.

They remarked about a photo of Thurmond above the guest books. In the picture, he is riding a horse in a 1995 parade in Trenton when he was 92.

As much as he meant for the state, it seemed that most people had their own personal connection to remember.

Tara Lee Shellhouse wore a bright red dress as she stood by the guest books. Thurmond had visited her in a hospital once and she didn't even know him personally. The dress, she said, she wore for him. Red was his favorite color. "I thought it was the least I could do."