Strom Thurmond's Mixed-Race Daughter Dies at 87

[Hissyspit]

Source: Associated Press

Strom Thurmond's mixed-race daughter dies at 87

By MEG KINNARD, Associated Press | February 4, 2013 | Updated: February 4, 2013

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Essie Mae Washington-Williams, the mixed-race daughter of one-time segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond who kept her parentage secret for more than 70 years, has died. She was 87.

Vann Dozier of Leevy's Funeral Home in Columbia said Washington-Williams died Sunday. A cause of death was not given.

Washington-Williams was the daughter of Thurmond and his family's black maid. The identity of her famous father was rumored for decades in political circles and the black community. She later said she kept his secret because, "He trusted me, and I respected him."

Not until after Thurmond's death in 2003 at age 100 did Washington-Williams come forward and say her father was the white man who ran for president on a segregationist platform and served in the U.S. Senate for more than 47 years.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Strom-Thurmond-s-mixed-race-daughter-dies-at-87-4249966.php

[Swamp Lover]

1. She had a lot of class.

Much more class than he did.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. R.I.P.

What a burden to bear for all those years. May you rest in peace.

[hrmjustin]

3. May she rest in peace.

[Mike Nelson]

4. I would like to have seen more of her and less of him...

RIP Essie Mae

[Posteritatis]

5. That's a pretty irritating headline

Yes, let's reduce Washington-Williams entirely to her skin colour and association with Thurmond and only later suggest that she may have had a name and identity of some sort..

[NYC Liberal]

6. Better than the one when Rosemary Kennedy died a few years ago:

"Retarded Kennedy sister dies at 86"

No joke.

[Ian Iam]

7. Mixed-Race?

More like Hick's Rape of a teenaged girl who had no choice but to submit. People like Mr Thurmond make me want to vomit.

[Rozlee]

8. He didn't deserve her.

His slimy DNA must have been part of totally recessive genes when it came to making the woman that became his lovely, long-unacknowledged daughter. That man was the son of the master of the house and raped a 16-year-old at a time when teen African-American girls were no more than the slaves they'd been just two generations before. I can't put myself in Ms. Washington-Williams' shoes--although I can give my two cents' worth! She strikes me as being very generous of heart and having an extremely charitable spirit. I couldn't have been that tenderhearted in remembering a man that never avowed my existence publicly and that considered half of my race as inferior and not deserving of human rights; that considered me an embarrassment to be hidden.

[skeewee08]

9. Sorry to hear this

I remember when she was on 60 minutes such a Classy Woman. RIP Mrs. Washington-Williams