- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJames Strom Thurmond
- Height5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
- Strom Thurmond is an American politician who served for 48 years as a United States Senator from South Carolina. He ran for president in 1948 as the States' Rights Democratic Party candidate, receiving 2.4% of the popular vote and 39 electoral votes. Thurmond represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from 1954 until 2003, at first as a Southern Democrat and, after 1964, as a Republican.
Thurmond left office as the only member of either chamber of Congress to reach the age of 100 while still in office, and as the oldest-serving and longest-serving senator in U.S. history (although he was later surpassed in the latter by Robert Byrd and Daniel Inouye). Thurmond holds the record as the longest-serving member of Congress to serve exclusively in the Senate. He is also the longest-serving Republican member of Congress in U.S. history. At 14 years, he was also the longest-serving Dean of the United States Senate in U.S. history.
In opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957, he conducted the longest speaking filibuster ever by a lone senator, at 24 hours and 18 minutes in length.
- IMDb mini biography by: Tango Papa
- SpousesNancy Janice Moore(December 22, 1968 - 1991) (separated, 4 children)Jean Crouch(November 7, 1947 - January 6, 1960) (her death)
- ChildrenNancy Moore ThurmondJames Strom Thurmond Jr.Juliana Gertrude ThurmondPaul Reynolds Thurmond
- As the then longest serving Republican in the United States Senate, when the Republicans were in the Senate majority, he served as President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate (from 1981 to 1987 and from 1995 to 2001). At age 100, he was the oldest person ever to serve in the United States Senate, and the oldest person ever to serve as President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate.
- He was forty-three years older than his second wife, Nancy Janice Moore, a former "Miss South Carolina." When they married he was 66 years old and she was 23 years old.
- Had five children: Essie Mae Washington-Williams (1925-2013), Nancy Moore Thurmond (1971-1993), James Strom Thurmond Jr. (b. 1972), Juliana Gertrude Thurmond (b. 1974), and Paul Reynolds Thurmond (b. 1976). All except for Washington were born with Thurmond's second wife, Nancy Janice Moore. Washington, whose parentage was not acknowledged until after Strom Thurmond's death, was born with Carrie Butler, a 16-year-old African-American maid of Thurmond's family.
- Senator Thurmond held several longevity records for the United States Senate. At age 100, he became the oldest ever sitting United States Senator, and he held the record for the longest cumulative (but not consecutive) senate term, at 47 years and 5 months. However, after being elected for a ninth consecutive term, Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia surpassed Thurmond's longevity record in June 2007, finishing with ultimate consecutive service of 51 years, 5 months, and 25 days from the time he took office on January 3, 1959, until the time of Senator Byrd's death on June 28, 2010.
- Was elected to the United States Senate as a write-in candidate in 1954 on a platform supporting racial segregation. By the 1970s he had abandoned many of his policies, but never issued any formal apology or retraction.
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