PHOENIX — The country continues to mourn the loss of the late Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and remember her contributions to the nation.
A trailblazing judge, O'Connor became the first woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court after being nominated by President Ronald Reagan.
12News anchor Mark Curtis got the chance to sit down with O'Connor's son, Brian Day O'Connor.
He said his mother was devoted to her family and lived life to its fullest.
Watch the full interview with Brian Day O'Connor below
Mark Curtis:
Who was Sandra Day O'Connor?
Brian Day O'Connor:
So, she was the most fun person I knew. She had a voracious curiosity for all things. And she wanted to bite the apple, wherever and whatever it was, and that took her all over the world, in all kinds of what I call adventurous, athletic endeavors. Which is, I'd like to think I'm carrying the baton on that, if you will. But there's a lot of that, that I think the other side of my mom that people may, might not have been aware of.
You and I were just chatting about some of my skydiving career and I can honestly thank my mother for that, because she had to sign the parental consent form, as I was only 17 years old, to allow me to make that first jump. But she did it on the condition that I never go hang gliding again 'cause she found out about that and was not all too happy. But she was fine with the parachuting.
Mark Curtis:
What do you remember about life before she got that call from Ronald Reagan?
Brian Day O'Connor:
Well, in many ways, it's the same life that continued after. It was family ski trips, we literally would load up the station wagon like the Griswolds. The presents we'd open on top and the skis on top and the three sons fighting in the backseat and off to Utah or Colorado we'd drive and we'd go for two weeks straight and we'd our last day would be skiing on Christmas Day, then we come back home and so we did that. Over time, I did it all over the world with mom and dad, skiing in the in the Alps and in Sun Valley.
After she was recovering from, I think it's public knowledge, cancer, she went through breast cancer, she was skiing in Sun Valley with friends. I think Clint Eastwood was there. And she took a fell and broke something, broke a shoulder and on a nothing fall. And the doctor said, well, Justice O'Connor, your bones are brittle from all the chemotherapy you went through, you can't ski anymore. So, for the trips going forward, she would be in the snow, while we're all skiing in waders, fly fishing. And that's what launched her fly fishing career. And she went on to do that all around the world, from Mongolia to Alaska and everywhere in between.
Mark Curtis:
Because she had been down this road with your dad with Alzheimer's, when she started showing signs of dementia... she was an intelligent woman, she was very sharp. It had to be hard on her.
Brian Day O'Connor:
I mean, there was frustration. It's hard on anyone but I never saw kind of these bouts of anger or frustration over the situation that she was in and my job frankly and visiting with her during the decline. I just go in there and to try to make her laugh and tell her what's been going on of late. Tell her some funny stories and just make it make it easy like that.
Mark Curtis:
You sent us a picture of you, and I'm assuming it was during COVID, standing outside the window of a care facility and chatting with her. That really, it brought me a wide range of emotions, because my dad passed during COVID and we were separated, I couldn't even go to visit him when he was critically ill. How, what do you remember about that time?"
Brian Day O'Connor:
So I'd forgotten I shared that photo, and I'm glad you brought that up, so that was a frustrating time for everyone. And for her at that moment, she, it still wasn't clear to her, 'Why couldn't we come here?' You see me out of being down. I just came back from skydiving, Scott O'Connor's outside the window, and there we are speaking through screen, and that was a tough time to not be able to go in and give her the hug you want to give her. But you know what, we all went through that worldwide not just here in the U.S. so, but that I actually do love that photo.
Mark Curtis:
They called her a daughter of Arizona, which is maybe one of the greatest compliments you can have to be someone who was referred to in the same sentence as the state that she loved, served in, came back to after her service in Washington. How does that sit with you, a daughter of Arizona, for your mom?
Brian Day O'Connor:
I love it. She was the first woman inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame. And she was every bit the cowgirl growing up and that's what Arizona has been. It's been the three C's: cattle, cotton and copper. And I think we couldn't do better than then to have that, that identity.
Brian O'Connor shared these pictures from his mother's life.
The life of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
You can watch the rest of Mark Curtis' interview with Brian Day O'Connor in the video above.
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