My Aunt Sandra Goes to Washington

It was the autumn of 1967, and I had just left my family in Seaford, Delaware, to seek an English degree from Middle Tennessee State University. My world centered on the fears and excitement of college life--and I carried with me concerns about my family, myself, my sister, and my parents. But around the country, and particularly in Washington, DC, things were really happening.

My Aunt Sandra was 22 years old that September--only four years older than I--when she landed the job that forever changed her life. Almost as a fluke (which she considers destiny), she was appointed personal secretary to United States Senator Strom Thurmond from South Carolina.

October 1967: My pretty Aunt Sandra is quite a bit taller than I am. She's 5'8" to my 5'4', but I think we look quite alike.

Shortly thereafter, the historical Ford Theater (where Lincoln had been assassinated) reopened with a gala performance in January 1968. On March 31, President Johnson announced he would not seek reelection. A few days later, on April 4, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, spurring six days of race riots. After King's death, participants set up a 3000-person "tent city" on the Washington Mall for six weeks to gain economic justice for the poor in the United States. On June 6, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles. On Jan. 20, 1969, with a ball held in his honor, Richard Nixon was sworn in as the 37th president of the United States (and we all know how that would turn out). In March of that same year, Dwight D. Eisenhower's body was brought to the United States Capitol, where he lay in state in the Capital Rotunda.

These are a just a few of the things that my aunt, Sandra Drawdy Courie, remembers and experienced because she lived and worked in DC from 1967 through 1969. There, she met head-honchos too numerous to name: presidents and vice-presidents, congressmen, Supreme Court justices, military chiefs of staff, foreign ambassadors, even Ann Landers!

If you are not from South Carolina, you may not know about the famous (or sometimes infamous) Senator Strom Thurmond. Born in 1902 in Edgefield, SC, he graduated from Clemson in 1923. He became the county attorney for Edgefield and then was elected to the South Carolina Senate in 1933. Beginning in 1942, during World War II, he served in the army, rising to the rank of Major General.

From 1947-51, he was the Democratic governor of South Carolina. Then in 1954, he was elected as a United States senator from South Carolina, switching to the Republican party in 1964. He served for 48 years in that capacity, and he lived to be 100, the oldest person to have ever served in Congress. Eight years after his first wife Jean died at age 33 of a brain tumor in 1960, he married his second wife Nancy in 1968. He was 66, and she was 22. Together they had four children.

Known for his pro-segregation policies, he helped propose a manifesto that opposed the Supreme Court decision to desegregate public schools in 1957. The decision was passed nevertheless and became the landmark 1957 Civil Right Act.

Ironically, it was later reported that Thurmond had a biracial daughter. At the age of 22, he fathered a daughter, Essie, with his family's 16-year-old African American domestic worker. Essie Mae Washington-Williams was introduced to her father during her teens and received financial support from Thurmond and visited him in Washington. She was a Los Angeles teacher with a master's degree. She did not publicly reveal that she was his daughter until six months after his death. She died 10 years later in 2013 at the age of 87.

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If you are not from South Carolina, you also may not know about my famous Aunt Sandra! She is the youngest of nine children born to my paternal grandparents, Flossie and Fulton Drawdy. My dad, Ken Drawdy, was the second child born into that family. The story is told that when Ken called his mother to tell her that his wife Margie was pregnant (with their first child), her mother replied, "So am I." (She was pregnant with her last child!) So that's how I came to have an aunt only four years older than I.

Sandra was born and raised in Bowman, SC, a small town in Orangeburg County. Back in the '50s when cotton was king, this country town was situated in the center of what was a major cotton-producing area, where the rich clay sub-soil is ideal for growing cotton. As a child, when I would be taken on our annual summer visit to Bowman to my grandparents' farm, I was struck by the poverty of the place, by the intense heat, and by the barrenness of the land. As our car rambled down the long dirt road, I pressed my little face against the car window to take in the gleaming white cotton plants growing endlessly across the fields. Shanties would occasionally present themselves on the side of the dusty roads with numerous black faces peeping out, and tall pine trees grew scrubby against the bluest sky. The sandy soil invariably stuck to my sweaty, flip-flop-clad feet as I scampered around the farm yard. I was enchanted by the farm, its nature, and its numerous farm animals.

"My family always had plenty to eat, with two freezers full of beef, pork, and garden vegetables," remembers Sandra. "We had delicious mouth-watering hams curing in the smokehouse and a fenced-in yard for fresh eggs and fresh fried chicken on Sundays." After graduating from Bowman High School, which had a graduating class of 12 people, Sandra went to a two-year business college in Columbia and graduated with honors. She then worked at Pilot Life Insurance Company in Columbia. After her father died, she moved back home to Bowman to be with her mother, took a state administrative test (on which she surprised herself by scoring the second highest in the entire state) and got a job working for the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Department. 

One day Sandra's mother called her at work to say that she had heard on the local TV news that Strom Thurmond was losing his personal secretary and sought a new one. "Mom told me that she wanted me to apply for the job." Sandra told her mother that she wouldn't get it, and she said, "I know, but at least you'll get a letter from Strom Thurmond!"

Mostly, just to please her mother, Sandra wrote a letter to the Senator's Washington office, applying for the job. "I received a call soon after that and was asked to meet with one of the Senator's South Carolina aides in Columbia. After the interview with his aide, the Senator called and offered me the position of his personal secretary at the then unheard of annual salary of $6,000 for a secretary." With Thurmond's thick Southern accent, it always came out as PUH-sun-al secretary.

With two weeks to prepare herself for the move to Washington, Sandra, her mother, and two of her sisters had a ball shopping for her new business attire; she remembers in particular one exquisite black dress that was perfect for all the DC receptions. Sandra found Washington to be the most impressive city that she had ever seen. She recalls that there on her left was the impressive Jefferson Memorial, all lit up and gleaming white. For the two years that she lived in Washington, she remained in awe that she worked in and around the Capitol building itself. Very early in her job, the Senator explained to her about not only making sure that things were done right, but also that they must look right to protect one's integrity. She remarked to him one night that the Capitol building was beautiful, to which he replied, "It is indeed beautiful, but there's a lot of 'dirt' that goes on under the roof."

Senator Thurmond liked his staff readily available, so Sandra's desk was right in his office. (He was the only senator to have this arrangement.) As his personal secretary, Sandra took care of things of a personal nature for the Senator: his appointment calendar, invitations, checking and savings accounts, all correspondence with his brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews. She reminded him of appointments and committee meetings 15 minutes prior to the meeting or appointment and made sure that he appeared for votes on the Senate floor. Alongside the Senator, Sandra helped entertain constituents at lunches in the Senates' Dining Room in the Capitol and at other events.

It was while Sandra was still working for the Senator in Washington that he married his second wife Nancy in December 1968. When the Senate recessed around Thanksgiving through the first of the year, Sandra traveled to his home in Aiken, SC, each November/December as the Senator did. She got to know Nancy and all of the children well. Later, Sandra's own children attended their birthday parties. Years later in 1984, Sandra worked as Nancy's assistant for almost two years.

"Working for the Senator was an education unto itself; in politics, health (he was big on eating right and exercise), protocol, social studies, and much more on life lessons," Sandra stated. She was working with the Senator when he was courting Nancy, and one day he did something extremely special for her. Sandra remarked on his thoughtfulness, and he told her something that she's never forgotten, "The love you give is returned to you many times over."

Thurmond considered his Washington staff to be like family, and everyone who had ever met the Senator had a "Strom story" to tell. Highly intelligent with a good sense of humor, Thurmond would enjoy hearing the stories about himself as much as they liked telling them. Aunt Sandra tells one of her personal favorites:

Senator Bobby Kennedy's office was next door to ours in the Russell Senate Office Building. Although our staff was made up of staunch Republicans, we were still thrilled to see Bobby Kennedy pass by. He often was accompanied by his two rather large dogs, and one day those two dogs came directly into the Senator's private office and ran around his desk. The Senator asked, 'Miss Drawdy, what are those dogs doing in here?' I answered, 'Senator, those are Senator Kennedy's dogs.' He blinked his eyes and responded, 'Democratic dogs? I guess we'd better get them out of heyah on the double!'

March 1969: It looks as if the Senator is congratulating Sandra on her engagement here. That's why she left the job in Washington, to go home to SC and to get married.

As far as Thurmond's controversial politics, Sandra said, "It was the late '60s, and times were changing. I never heard the Senator speak unkindly of any black person. It was a different world when he entered politics, and his earlier views were out of vogue. He was a man of the times and felt he could do most good in serving his state."

When Sandra left the Senator's office to return home to SC and get married, Thurmond proclaimed at her going-away party that she had "one of the best minds" of anyone who'd ever worked in his office. Through the years, Sandra continued to work for Thurmond: on two of his re-election campaigns, as his wife Nancy's assistant, and at a half-dozen biennial reunions for anyone who had ever worked for the Senator. One of the reunions was held at Clemson when Vice-President Bush was the main speaker at the groundbreaking for the Strom Thurmond Institute.

Sandra and Strom remained lifelong friends. She attended his 90th and 100th birthday parties. The 90th was especially special, as Bill Clinton and Al Gore attended, and James Brown sang "Happy Birthday." During the last six months of his life, Sandra was one of a handful of friends allowed to visit him.

The Senator died in the summer of 2003. When his will was read, Sandra learned that he had left her (and a few other people) a small sum of money. She called her son stationed in Germany to tell him that she was "an heiress." A few minutes after reading the newspaper article online, her son called back to say, "Mom, the Senator didn't have many people in his will."

That's when Sandra knew just how much Thurmond had cared for her. Through 100 years of colleagues, family, and friends, she was one of the few who made a truly lasting impression with the Senator. In the years since his death, she says, "I've cherished this thought."