COLUMBIA, S.C. - After revealing the long-kept secret that she was the daughter of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, Essie Mae Washington-Williams' life has changed forever.

And it certainly won't be the only thing changing over the next few weeks and possibly years.

Both Williams and the Thurmond family have said they would like to meet in a "quiet setting," and Williams' attorney Frank Wheaton said a meeting is planned soon.

Beyond those new relationships, history books will be rewritten and Williams said she would like her name to be added to a life-size Thurmond monument on South Carolina's Statehouse grounds. "I would like that very much," she said.

The names of Thurmond's children etched in stone about eye-level on the statue are: Nancy Moore, J. Strom Jr., Juliana Gertrude and Paul Reynolds. There's enough space to put Williams name below the other children, but it wouldn't be in order of birth and the spacing might be a little off.

There also are several requirements that must be met before any alteration is made to the monument, which features a bronze statue of Thurmond walking.

Rep. Rex Rice, R-Easley and chairman of the committee that would likely have to approve a change, said first there has to be a request. The Statehouse committee also would have to looked at who would pay for the change and whether it would match the aesthetics of the monument.

Those who work on such monuments said Thursday it would be easiest and look best if the name were just added below the other children's names. If there was any grinding or blasting, it would alter the monument's look, they said.

The monument, with statue and base, weighs 32 tons. The whole thing was built in the late 1990s with $850,000 in private donations. The monument depicts Thurmond as he was in the 1960s - in the midst of a political career that spanned most of the past century.

Williams claimed her right to part of that history on Wednesday, when she told the world that Thurmond was her father. Her mother was a black 16-year-old maid in the Thurmond household. Thurmond was 22 years old when Williams was born.

Her voice quavered during the announcement when she said "at last, I feel completely free" before dozens of television cameras, reporters and supporters.

Her attorneys have said her recent appearances on national networks and countless interviews have tired the 78-year-old Williams. She has said she wants to meet the Thurmond family, and they too, have indicated through an attorney that they would like to meet her.

The family's acceptance of Williams will alter history books and unauthorized biographies of Thurmond, said University of South Carolina history professor Lacy Ford.

Most historians and students in Southern politics had heard Thurmond may have had a biracial child, but it had not been proven, Ford said.

"It seems like it's moving from being a matter of rumor and speculation to being one of fact," Ford said. "It will certainly be something that historians will have to take into account."

Ford said he understands Williams' desire to be on the monument as well as part of the family, but he notes it won't be an easy process. Rewriting a new edition of a previously published book might be a little easier.

"Sometimes, we put up monuments of people prematurely," Ford said, adding it wouldn't be "unthinkable" to remove the monument entirely.

Although it would likely cause an uproar if the monument of South Carolina's most prominent political figure were removed, it's still unclear if Williams' name will make it on the monument.

State Sen. John Courson, one of those on the original monument commission who helped raise the money from private donors to build the statue dedicated in December 1999, said he hadn't given it any thought. "I don't know how one changes inscriptions on a monument," said Courson, R-Columbia, who is a close friend of the Thurmond family.

Courson, though, thinks highly of Williams.

"I was totally surprised about the revelations," he said. "I think Ms. Williams handled it very well. She's obviously a very classy lady."

Rice said didn't have an opinion on whether her name should be added. "I'm open-minded on it," he said.