Strom Thurmond back in hospital

May 15, 2000
Web posted at: 3:56 p.m. EDT (1956 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Sen. Senator Strom Thurmond (R-South Carolina) is back in the hospital being treated for exhaustion and dehydration, the same symptoms that sent him there just last week.

The 97-year-old senator checked himself back into Walter Reed Army Medical Center Sunday morning after feeling fatigued, dehydrated and complaining of an upset stomach, according to his spokeswoman Genevieve Erny.

Erny said the eight-term senator had been feeling better after three days in the hospital last week, and had been in good spirits after attending his daughter Julie's engagement party in the Washington area.

Doctors planned to keep Thurmond in the hospital Monday night, but anticipate releasing him Tuesday, Erny said.

Thurmond is both the oldest and longest-serving member of the United States Senate. He was elected in 1954 as a Democrat after serving as the state's segregationist governor and running for President in 1948 as a "Dixiecrat."

He left the Democratic Party in 1964 and joined the Republican Party to champion the unsuccessful presidential candidacy of ultra-conservative Sen. Barry Goldwater against Lyndon Baines Johnson.