Woman claims she's Strom Thurmond's mixed-race daughter

LOS ANGELES -- A 78-year-old retired schoolteacher is comingforward after years of silence to claim she is the out-of-wedlock,mixed-race daughter of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, her attorneysaid Saturday.

Essie Mae Washington-Williams, who lives in Los Angeles, had longbeen rumored to be the daughter of the onetime segregationist, whodied June 26 at the age of 100. She is coming forward now at theurging and encouragement of her children, attorney Frank K. Wheatonsaid.

"We're not trying to upset the Thurmond estate. We are merelybringing closure to Essie Mae's life, so her children have anopportunity to know from where they come; whether those ancestors areblack or white matters not," he said. "It is part of our Americanhistory."

Williams told the Washington Post that Thurmond privatelyacknowledged her as his daughter and had provided financial supportsince 1941. The Post first reported her claims on its Web siteSaturday.

Williams, who has scheduled a news conference in Columbia, S.C.,on Wednesday, previously denied rumors that Thurmond, the nation'soldest and longest-serving senator, was her father.

Those close to Thurmond said they were unsure about Williams'claim. "I really don't know anything about that story, so you'll needto talk to someone else," Thurmond's widow, Nancy Moore Thurmond,said. The couple separated in 1991.

In seven decades of politics, Thurmond gained fame and infamy asan arch-segregationist, but he later came to support a holiday forthe slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Williams claims Thurmond fathered her long before his politicalcareer started, when he was a 22-year-old living in his parents' homein Edgefield, S.C.

Her mother, then 16, had been working as a maid in the Thurmonds'home.

If challenged by the Thurmond family, Williams is ready to submitto DNA tests, Wheaton said.

AP