PHOENIX — There are few glass ceilings U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has not shattered.
Born March 26, 1930, Sandra Day O’Connor was the daughter of a cattle rancher. Growing up on the Lazy B Ranch around cowboys during the Great Depression may have inadvertently prepared her to wrangle Washington D.C.
“She rode tall in the saddle, as some might say, raised with grit, determination and perseverance," explained Sarah Suggs, president and CEO of the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute for American Democracy.
Brian O’Connor, O'Connor's son, recalled there was not much downtime with his mother.
"Sandra Day O’Connor was exhausting to me to a certain extent because you were always doing something," he said.
Brian O’Connor said he will never forget the day his mother was tapped to be the very first woman to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981.
“There were news trucks (in his neighborhood). I couldn’t even get out of the house, going for blocks with all the antennas and satellites up and it dawned on me – this is a big deal," he said.
O’Connor was up for the challenge. She served as the first female majority leader of any state senate as Republican leader of the Arizona Senate. She sat on the Maricopa County Superior Court and on the Arizona Court of Appeals.
“Very few Supreme Court justices have served in all three branches of government. What a perspective," Suggs said.
During her two decades on the high court, Justice O’Connor insisted the justices eat lunch together, despite dissenting opinions. She was considered conservative, but never predictable as the lone woman on the court a dozen years before the swearing in of Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
In 2006, Justice O’Connor made the difficult decision to retire from the Supreme Court to return to Phoenix to care for her husband, John O’Connor, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s.
“The notion of for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health was never more demonstrated than with the O’Connors," Suggs said.
A 2009 recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, O’Connor, now 91 years young, is not as active as she used to be, but continues to enjoy her days in her beloved Arizona.
“She’s in good health. (At) 91, she’s had a tremendous, long, great run, but the fun thing for me that still exists is to be able to really have a good laugh with her and she loves to be told a joke and she’s still quick with her wit to come back if I’ve said something silly," Brian O’Connor said.
One of Justice O’Connor’s passion projects has been the establishment of iCivics, a free online platform that provides high quality civics education programs for K-12 students across the country.