Thurmond's Support of Daughter Varied

[kskiska]

'64 Letter Said He Was 'Pressed' for Cash and Williams Was Late to Repay 'Loan'

At a time when he was planning his politically risky switch to the Republican Party, Sen. Strom Thurmond wrote in response to a request for financial aid from his mixed-race daughter that he was "pressed for money" and believed she had not yet repaid an earlier "loan," according to papers found in a voluminous archive of Thurmond's Senate years.

The July 28, 1964, letter to Essie Mae Washington-Williams suggests that Thurmond, who died in June at 100, was less compliant in making financial payments to his secret offspring than Williams has suggested in a whirlwind of national media interviews over the past few weeks.

(snip)

A handful of communications found in Thurmond's archives at Clemson University's Strom Thurmond Institute suggest his reluctance to provide money, particularly in 1964, the year that Williams's husband, Julius, died of heart problems and left her a widow with four children.

The letters also show efforts by Thurmond and his Senate office to cloak the true nature of the relationship in official correspondence, sometimes writing to her as if in a code known only to the two of them. Calendars found in the papers document the last visit to Thurmond's Washington office, on June 20, 2002, by Williams's daughter Wanda. Williams has described the visit as part of an annual ritual to pick up money from the senator.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22759-2003Dec22.html

[davidinalameda]

1. what a way to treat your child

disgusting

[qanda]

2. I blame her as much as I blame him

As the daughter of a man who pretty much abandoned me when I was a child, I have no interest in cleaning up for his past actions. My father is what he is and I would not waste one breath to try to get people to understand why he made bad, selfish decisions.

[PartyPooper]

3. Now, I have to retract what I said about Strom a few days ago.

When the reports first came in...indicating that he made regular payments in support of his daughter...I lauded his actions as a father (in spite of his politics "being in the toilet"). I commented that he even paid for his daughter's college education.

But, another DU'er chastised my remarks...saying that these weren't "support payments"...rather they were "hush money". After reading this, I'm inclined to agree with that poster.

It looks like Strom was just another "dead-beat dad".

[Voltaire99]

4. "Dead-beat dad"...

...seems to be a term reserved for those who aren't late powerful senators. The Post prefers the euphemistic "support varied" when describing the moral lassitude of the nation's more venerable scumbags.

How do you suppose Thurman is getting on in hell?