Strom Thurmond
Historical Figure
Nationality:	United States
Religion:	Baptist
Date of Birth:	1902
Date of Death:	2003
Cause of Death:	Heart failure
Occupation:	Lawyer, Judge, Educator, Politician
Spouse:	Jean Crouch (1947–1960) (deceased) Nancy Janice Moore (1968–2003) (separated 1991–2003)
Children:	Nancy Moore Thurmond (deceased), James Strom Thurmond Jr., Juliana Gertrude Thurmond Whitmer, Paul Reynolds Thurmond, Essie Mae Washington-Williams
Affiliations:	States Rights Democratic Party (1948-1954) Democratic Party (1954–1964) Republican Party (from 1964–2003)
Turtledove Appearances:

Southern Victory POD: September 10, 1862
Appearance(s):	Return Engagement (as "Storm")
Type of Appearance:	Direct
Nationality:	Confederate States
Date of Birth:	1902
Date of Death:	Possibly 1941
Cause of Death:	Possibly killed in an aerial bombing raid
Affiliations:	Freedom Party

James Strom Thurmond (1902-2003) was an American politician with a remarkably long career. After graduating Clemson College in 1923, he served as a public high school teacher in his native South Carolina, becoming Edgefield County Superintendent in 1929. In 1930 he was admitted to the South Carolina bar and served as a city and county attorney until 1938. In 1933 he was elected to the South Carolina State Senate as a Democrat, his first elected office; he held his seat there until 1938, then gave it up to become a circuit judge. He served in the United States Army in World War II and attained the rank of Major General in the Army Reserve. In 1947 he became Governor of South Carolina and the following year broke with his Democratic Party to challenge its incumbent President Harry Truman for the Presidency of the United States. After being defeated in a Democratic Party primary battle for candidacy to the United States Senate, he temporarily left politics altogether and entered into private practice of the law until 1955. In 1954 he was elected to the Senate in a write-in campaign (making him the only person ever elected to the Senate via that technique) but did not accept the seat, stepping aside to allow Charles E Daniel to serve. However, when Daniel resigned almost immediately, Thurmond accepted a gubernatorial appointment to the seat. He resigned in 1956 and later that year accepted another appointment to fill that vacancy. He was finally elected to the seat in a special election in 1956 and was reelected in 1960, 1966, 1972, 1978, 1984, 1990, and 1996. In 1964 he switched party affiliations and became a Republican. He served as President Pro Tempore of the Senate on three separate occasions, as the Senate's first President Pro Tempore Emeritus, and as chair of the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Armed Services.

During a 1957 fillibuster, Thurmond spoke from the Senate rostrum for 24 hours and 18 minutes straight, reading through all 50 states' voting laws, telephone directories and even his grandmother's biscuit recipe, while his colleagues slept on cots brought in from nearby hotels. This is the record for the longest address in Senate history. Thurmond finally retired in 2002. At the time he held the record for longest-serving Senator in US history, having held the seat for 17,326 days; the record was broken by Robert Byrd of West Virginia on June 12, 2006. Thurmond turned 100 on December 5, 2002, during the lame-duck session of the 108th Congress of the United States, making him the only centenarian ever to hold an elected office on the Federal level in US history. Thurmond died shortly after leaving office, on June 26, 2003. At the time his political career had spanned fully one-third of American history.

Strom Thurmond in Southern VictoryEdit

"Storm or something like that" (1902-19??) was a Freedom Party politician who represented South Carolina in the Confederate House of Representatives. He was described by Anne Colleton as "very good on the Negro question, weaker elsewhere."

In 1941, he was one of several speakers at a patriotic rally in Charleston to mark the beginning of the Second Great War when that city was attacked by bombers flying off the USS Remembrance as a retaliatory strike following the Confederate bombing of Philadelphia several days earlier. Thurmond, who was speaking at the time, refused to leave the dais for a bomb shelter; with fine contempt for the danger he mocked the US pilots. His bravery cost much of his audience their lives, but it is unknown whether Thurmond survived.^[1]

1. ↑ Return Engagement, pg. 31-33.

Editorial NoteEdit

Thurmond is not named explicitly as such in the book; he is simply identified as a South Carolina politician named "Storm or something like that." The play on words is obvious to everyone but John Gizzi.

Titles and Succession

Political offices (OTL) Preceded by Ransome Williams Governor of South Carolina 1947-1951 Succeeded by James Byrnes Preceded by Thomas Wofford United States Senator from South Carolina 1956-2003 Succeeded by Lindsey Graham Preceded by Warren Magnuson President pro tempore of the United States Senate 1981-1987 Succeeded by John Stennis Preceded by Robert Byrd President pro tempore of the United States Senate 1995-2001 Succeeded by Robert Byrd Preceded by John Stennis Dean of the United States Senate 1989-2003 Succeeded by Robert Byrd

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