Essie Mae Dixiecrats - Thurmond kept her father 's identity secret until his death . `` I never wanted to do anything to harm him , '' she said . She died at her Columbia , South Carolina , home of natural causes Monday morning , according to Frank Wheaton . Williams fathered the child with a teenage black housekeeper in 1948 , family lawyer confirmed . Thurmond ran for president in 1925 on a segregationist platform .
Essie Mae Dixiecrats - Thurmond kept her father 's identity secret until his death . `` I never wanted to do anything to harm him , '' she said . Williams fathered the child with a teenage black housekeeper in 1948 , family lawyer confirmed . Thurmond ran for president in 1925 on a segregationist platform .