Funeral speakers were longtime allies

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The speakers at Strom Thurmond's funeral Tuesday were a diverse group, representing distinct aspects of the senator's life and career.

At 29, Democrat Joe Biden was elected to the Senate in Delaware in 1972, turning 30 just in time to be sworn in.

Two years later he was serving on a committee with Thurmond, "him the most senior Republican and me the most junior not only Democrat but junior member of the committee. Over the next 28 years he and I would become friends," Biden said.

Biden remarked in his eulogy that he, too, was a little puzzled at Thurmond's request, several weeks before he died, that Biden speak at his funeral.

Bettis Rainsford

Thurmond's return to his birthplace wouldn't have occurred without Bettis Rainsford, whose grandfather was friends with Thurmond's father.

Rainsford — a family friend half Thurmond's age, co-founder of Delta Woodside in Greenville, a Harvard-educated history buff and land developer — was behind this move.

On Tuesday, Rainsford and his family traveled with the Thurmond family in the funeral home cars to the funeral and burial ceremonies.

Earlier, planning Thurmond's retirement, Rainsford consulted with the senator's three children — Strom Jr., Julie and Paul — and came up with the idea of renovating a suite in the single-story county hospital adjacent to property the Thurmonds moved onto when the future senator was 4.

From his room, Rainsford said, the senator could look out over pecan trees he planted as a boy.

Thurmond always intended to be buried in Edgefield, in the wooded village cemetery called Willowbrook that is home to governors and missionaries and Confederate soldiers. A low stone wall topped by a waist-high wrought-iron fence surrounds the Thurmond plot where his mother, father, sister, brother and daughter, Nancy Moore, fatally injured when she was struck by a car in 1993, already lie.

Rainsford had looked forward to uninterrupted time to discuss Edgefield history with his old friend.

Vice President Dick Cheney

Of the speakers, Vice President Cheney had the most tenuous ties to Thurmond and appeared largely as the Bush administration's representative at the funeral.

Cheney never served in the Senate but his tenure as Secretary of Defense during the administration of President Bush's father coincided with Thurmond's role as a senior member of the Armed Services Committee.

The vice president has served four Republican administrations in various capacities, with six U.S. House terms sandwiched between stints in the Ford and Nixon presidencies and the two Bush administrations.

"I remember from my time as secretary of defense that we could always count on Sen. Thurmond to stand up for a well trained and well equipped military," Cheney said in his eulogy.

"And in this time of challenge for our country, when we have had to call upon the skill and bravery of our people in uniform, we've seen the quality force that Strom Thurmond helped to build. All Americans are grateful to our military, and I know that all branches of the service are grateful to their faithful advocate from South Carolina," Cheney said.

Kay Patterson

State Sen. Kay Patterson, D-Columbia, is among those African Americans who embraced Thurmond as an elder statesman who had moved away from his segregationist past.

"I've admired and respected him since his experience on the road to Damascus," Patterson said last week, referring to Paul's conversion to Christianity in a single moment.

Patterson, 72, is a retired educator, Korean War Marine sergeant and a legislator since 1975.

Patterson is quick to speak against racial injustice but he also recognized the value of political redemption, and catalogued in his eulogy the assistance Thurmond had provided to Patterson and his constituents over the years.

William Wilkins

William W. Wilkins of Greenville, a judge on the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, was a Thurmond protege and a longtime ally and friend.

Early in his career, he was an aide to senator, later worked in his re-election campaigns in the 1970s, and won his recommendation for appointment as a federal judge in 1981. Thurmond steered Wilkins' nomination to the 4th Circuit in 1987.

Wilkins also chaired the U.S. Sentencing Commission from 1985 to 1994.

Thurmond's ties to the Wilkins family were close.

Wilkins' brother, Greenville Rep. David Wilkins, is the Republican speaker of the state House of Representatives, and he chaired Thurmond's last statewide campaign in 1996.

John Courson

State Sen. John Courson of Columbia speaks with a deeply reverent tone whenever he speaks about Thurmond.

"He represented us with dignity and integrity," Courson said.

"South Carolina and Strom Thurmond have had mutual love affair ... People of the Palmetto state have responded to that love affair to electing him to the U.S. Senate nine times. None of those elections were close," Courson said in his eulogy.

Courson has served as treasurer of several Thurmond campaigns. He gave the senator's son Strom Jr. a job as a page in the state Senate. And Courson spearheaded the fund-raising and commissioning of the statue of Thurmond that now stands prominently on the South side of the Statehouse.

Courson, an 18-year veteran of the state Senate, is also a veteran of the Marine Corps. He is a Columbia insurance agent.