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December 5, 2002, 8:45 a.m. Thurmond’s Century On his 100th birthday. By James Edwards Jr.

e has all but completed his ninth term. He has been the longest-serving senator. He holds the record for the longest filibuster (a real one of the old style, the kind Jimmy Stewart's character staged in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) of 24 hours and 18 minutes. And, of course, he is the oldest senator in history.

He arrived in the U.S. Senate to serve with notables such as Sens. Barry Goldwater of Arizona, Prescott Bush of Connecticut, Mike Mansfield of Montana, Richard B. Russell of Georgia, Harry F. Byrd of Virginia, and Everett M. Dirksen of Illinois.

But freshman Sen. Thurmond arrived with a heck of a resume. The way he got there was by being the first person ever elected to the Senate in a write-in campaign.

He had run for president in 1948 as a States Rights Democrat, carrying four states. He had served as the governor of South Carolina from 1947 to1951. He had fought in combat in World War II, volunteering (at age 39, though exempt because he was a circuit judge) for service. He landed in occupied France on D-Day with the 82nd Airborne Division and was decorated (including with the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star).

Thurmond had practiced law, served as county superintendent of education, state senator, school teacher, athletics coach, and graduated from Clemson College, where he was an outstanding athlete. His home county, Edgefield County, has produced the most governors in the state of South Carolina. When he was born, Teddy Roosevelt was president.

When my mother was young, she would often go to the McCormick County Courthouse, which was in Judge Thurmond's circuit. She accompanied my grandfather, one of only a couple of doctors in the county, who would testify as an expert witness.

Sen. Thurmond has been a senator all my life. My boyhood dream was to work on his Senate staff (which I did as my first real job out of college).

Sen. Thurmond began the southern swing to the Republican party. The senator switched parties in 1964 and became the first person whom South Carolina elected to the Senate as a Republican in 1966.

Another hallmark of Strom Thurmond has been his public service. He always stressed to his staff that helping people is paramount. You don't get elected and reelected to nine terms for thinking lofty thoughts in Washington and ignoring the people to whom you are accountable.

Sen. Thurmond is well known throughout South Carolina for providing superior constituent service. This goes beyond chasing down lost Social Security checks and veterans' benefits, though the senator has done his share of that. All my life, I've heard repeated accounts of how this or that government agency had tied somebody in red tape and "I called Strom Thurmond and he called 'em and got it straightened out in no time."

If a South Carolina teenager made the honor roll or was named valedictorian of his class, he would get a note from Sen. Thurmond. If a couple celebrated a silver or golden wedding anniversary, they'd get the senator's congratulations. If someone suffered the loss of a family member, they'd get the senator's condolences.

My uncle was mayor of McCormick, a small town in South Carolina. My aunt always said that when the phone rang early in the morning, she knew, "That's Strom." He'd be calling to get the details on the funeral or the circumstances of the death before contacting the family.

The thing people outside South Carolina don't know, or won't acknowledge, is that Sen. Thurmond's constituent service has always been equally rendered to black and white, Democrat and Republican.

And Strom Thurmond has done more for blacks in South Carolina than he has received credit for. He opposed the liberal civil-rights movement because it sought to force radical change. He opposed not its goals, but its tactics.

It forsook the legislative route of state legislatures and ordered, measured, consensual change for the heavy, centralized hand of the federal government and the courts. Its legacy includes judicial activism, an undermined federalism and a weakened Constitution.

As Sen. Thurmond aged, it showed more tellingly in his later years in the Senate. He relied increasingly on staff and scripts the older he got (although his practice had long been to deliver speeches from a well-honed manuscript). His health faltered and his remarks toward females hadn't kept up with the times. He became the butt of more and more jokes.

But all told, for so much of his tenure in the Senate, Sen. Thurmond faithfully served his state and his country. He held to his core beliefs — of limited government, of fidelity to the Founding Fathers' Constitution, of patriotism, of citizenship, and of duty to God and country.

Several years ago, I found a copy of Sen. Thurmond's 1968 book, The Faith We Have Not Kept, on my parents' bookshelf. I made an appointment to have the senator sign it. This now-inscribed book has become one of my most-treasured possessions.

On account of Strom Thurmond's remarkable example, perhaps more young (and middle-aged) conservatives will keep faith with the Founders' vision for America.

— James R. Edwards Jr., an adjunct fellow with the Hudson Institute, is a native of South Carolina.