Essie Mae Washington-Williams

Essie Mae Washington-Williams (born October 12, 1925) is the oldest child of the late Strom Thurmond, the former Governor of South Carolina and longtime United States Senator. She was born to Carrie Butler, a 16-year-old black girl who worked as a household servant for Thurmond's parents, and Thurmond, then 22 and unmarried. Washington-Williams graduated from college, earned a master's, married and had a family, and had a 30-year career as a teacher.

Washington-Williams did not reveal her biological father's identity until she was 78 years old, after Thurmond's death in 2003. He had paid for her college and took an interest in her and her family all his life. In 2004 she joined the United Daughters of the Confederacy through Thurmond's ancestral lines. She encouraged other African Americans to do the same, to enlarge the lineage societies' sense of history. She published her autobiography in 2005, which was nominated for the National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize.