By:  Sandra Thompson
NFBPWC’s Immediate Past President

We have lost another female trailblazer, Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day

O’Connor. She was the FIRST woman to serve as a Supreme Court Justice.

She was born in 1930, in El Paso, Texas. She was the daughter of a rancher and was raised on a 198,000-acre ranch in Arizona. At the age of 16 she enrolled in Stanford University. She graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in economics in 1950. She remained at Stanford Law School. She served on the Stanford Law Review. Day received the Order of the Coif, indicating she was in the top 10 percent of her class.

Upon graduation from law school in 1952, O'Connor had difficulty finding a paying job as an attorney in a law firm because of her gender. O'Connor found employment as a deputy county attorney in San Mateo, California, after she offered to work for no salary and without an office, sharing space with a secretary. After a few months, she began drawing a small salary as she performed legal research and wrote memos.

When her husband John Jay O’Connor was drafted, she decided to go with him to work in Germany as a civilian attorney for the Army's Quartermaster Corps. They remained there for three years before returning to the States where they settled in Maricopa County, Arizona, to begin their family. They had three sons: Scott (born 1958), Brian (born 1960), and Jay (born 1962). Following Brian's birth, O'Connor took a five-year hiatus from the practice of law.

O'Connor served as assistant Attorney General of Arizonafrom 1965 to 1969. In 1969, the governor of Arizona appointed O'Connor to fill a vacancy in the Arizona Senate. She ran for and won the election for the seat the following year. By 1973, she became the first woman to serve as Arizona's or any state's Majority Leader. She developed a reputation as a skilled negotiator and a moderate. After serving two full terms, O'Connor decided to leave the Senate.

In 1974, O'Connor was appointed to the Maricopa County Superior Court, serving from 1975 to 1979, when she was elevated to the Arizona State Court of Appeals. She served on the Court of Appeals-Division One until 1981 when she was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan. She retired in 2006. When she first arrived at the Supreme Court there was not even a women’s bathroom.

According to her son, Jay’s, eulogy that she brought a formidable energy to her personal life as well, her son noted that her way of relaxing after a long day at work was “three rounds of tennis or 18 holes of golf.” She was a voracious reader and a dancer along with her husband. She even took disco lessons. Her son also said that she honed her skills questioning attorneys by grilling her sons why they were out late on a Saturday night. Her son said that her final message to her three sons was “Our purpose in life is to help others along the way.” He continued “What a beautiful, powerful and totally Sandra Day O’Connor sentiment.”

Wishing you all a happy, joyful, peaceful and healthy 2024!