- 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.
- Was the Governor of South Carolina from 1947-1951, and served as one of the United States Senators representing South Carolina from 1954 to April 1956 and November 1956 to January 2003.
- Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 541-544. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.
- Is one of only two Presidential candidates to later reach their 100th birthday, the other being Alfred Landon. Landon was the Republican nominee for President in 1936, and Thurmond was the Dixiecrat nominee for President in 1948,.
- At aged 98, when he left the position of President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate in 2001, when his Republican party lost the Senate majority, he is the oldest individual to ever have a position in the U.S. Presidential line-of-succession.
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