Well, the fucker finally snuffed it. 100 years old. He was a U.S. Senator at the age of 100 years old.

A few years ago, in January 2001, Strom “recommended” his 28-year-old son to be US attorney for South Carolina. Several things to note:

• Strom Sr. is the second-ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, so it’s more of an appointment than a recommendation. (In fact, J. Strom Jr. got the job!)
• J. Strom Jr. is a bit wet behind the ears, being just 28 years old and having just graduated from law school in 1998, three years prior. He moved from being an assistant state prosecutor to being the head federal prosecutor for the entire state!
• Strom Sr., 98-year-old man, has a 28-year-old son

But how, you might ask? Well, assuming you’re asking about the last point, that’s very easy. The venerable senator has had four children by his current wife, Nancy Moore, former Miss South Carolina, whom he married when he was 66 and she was 22. His previous wife was also a Miss South Carolina, whom he married when he was 44. He traded up after she was 34.

One might try to compare Strom to the 89-year-old billionaire J. Howard Marshall, who married 25-year-old Anna Nicole Smith, verbally promised her his estate, then died without leaving her a penny. But Strom is better than that; he stops a generation short of marrying women the age of his great-granddaughter.

Strom was apparently quite the animal in his day; the drivers were instructed to keep their eyes on the road. In later days, though, his brain lost the vigor of the rest of his body.

Strom Thurmond is the only member of the Senate to ever win on a write-in vote. Unfortunately, he outlasted Jim Hodges in office, so his successor was a Republican.

Strom holds the record for the longest-ever speech in the Senate, a 24-hour, 18-minute filibuster in opposition to the 1957 Civil Rights Act. He was also the author of the 1956 “Southern Manifesto” against Brown v. Board of Education.

The old racist had it all. He even met Jerry Garcia.

FDR signed his commission as a colonel in World War II. In his youth, he knew Civil War veterans. Just think: Strom Thurmond, the person who was third in line to the presidency, had childhood acquaintances who had seen Andrew Jackson. (After Jim Jeffords defected, the pro tem became Robert Byrd, D-VA: a sprightly 83.)