Thurmond recovering after taking ill in Senate

Sen. Strom Thurmond, 98, has been in frail health for several years.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate's oldest lawmaker, Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, is recovering in a hospital after taking ill on the Senate floor Tuesday morning.

"Senator Thurmond's fine," Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott said. "We got a report from our in-house doctor ... (and) Dr. Bill Frist called and said his vital signs were very strong."

Frist, a senator from Tennessee as well as a surgeon, was among the first to attend to the 98-year-old Thurmond.

Thurmond's office had initially said the senator had collapsed, but a statement released later in the day described the incident in milder terms.

The statement said that, following a vote, Thurmond "complained of feeling weak and light-headed. Senator Thurmond was assisted to the floor in order to elevate his feet and to be examined by the attending physician of the Capitol."

The statement described Thurmond as "fully alert" during the episode and said he had been taken to the hospital as a "precautionary measure."

"The senior senator from South Carolina is feeling well and looks forward to returning to work as soon as possible," said a second statement from his office. "Doctors will not be able to determine conclusively what caused Senator Thurmond's spell until all tests are complete. However, they have indicated that it may have resulted from dehydration. Doctors have requested that he stay overnight for observation and additional tests."

Lott said Thurmond "didn't even actually faint, he didn't fall, he was just feeling faint."

"But they checked him, and have taken him to Walter Reed (Army Medical Center) just to make sure everything's OK. And Bill (Frist) said he's fine and he'll be back on duty certainly tomorrow if not before."

Thurmond is the oldest and longest-serving member of Congress. He has been in frail health for several years.

Paramedics, Frist and other senators gathered around when the South Carolina Republican became ill, and Thurmond was bothered by the attention, according to a Frist aide.

"Are you making all this fuss over me?" the aide quoted Thurmond as saying.

Thurmond left the Capitol in a wheelchair and was waving, witnesses said.

Thurmond was first elected to the Senate in 1954 but has held public office since the late 1920s -- save for the years he served in the U.S. military during the World War II. He reached the Senate as a write-in candidate.

Thurmond had been hospitalized on numerous occasions in recent months for a variety of low-level but persistent ailments, including stomach upset, back pain, dehydration and exhaustion. Despite the illnesses, he has always managed to return to the Senate a scant few days after his hospital admittances.

He is best known for his longevity in public office and his once-fiery opposition to civil rights -- a stance he abandoned, like many one-time supporters of segregation, in later years.

Born in Edgefield, South Carolina, on December 5, 1902, Thurmond graduated from Clemson College (now University) in 1923 with a horticulture degree. After farming and teaching in his hometown, he became the county's superintendent of schools in 1929.

The son of a judge, Thurmond studied law under his father and won a seat in the state Senate in 1932, the same year Franklin D. Roosevelt became president. During World War II, Thurmond -- a longtime Army Reserve officer -- fought with the 82nd Airborne Division on D-Day and emerged from the war as a highly decorated lieutenant colonel.

In 1946, he ran successfully for governor of South Carolina as a Democrat and gained national attention by fighting against President Harry Truman's decision to end racial segregation in the military. When Truman pushed a strong civil rights plank in the Democratic Party's 1948 platform, the action prompted some Southerners to walk out of the Democratic National Convention.

The discontented group formed the short-lived States Rights' Democratic Party, the "Dixiecrats." Thurmond became the party's candidate for president, carrying Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and South Carolina and winning 39 electoral votes. But Truman managed to win the presidency, and two years later, Thurmond lost a bid for the Senate.

But he soon went on to win eight terms in the U.S. Senate, starting with his 1954 write-in campaign as a Democrat. He switched to the Republican Party in 1964.

Thurmond has announced his intention to retire at the end of his current term -- at the beginning of 2003 -- when he will be 100 years old.