by Peter Huber
SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR is the first woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court.
Born in 1930 in El Paso, Texas, she grew up on her family's vast cattle ranch on the Arizona-New Mexico border. In 1952, she graduated from Stanford Law School and married fellow law student John O'Connor. Discovering no law firms willing to hire a woman, she took a job as an assistant county attorney, then served as a civilian army lawyer. She settled with her husband in Phoenix, Arizona, opened a private law practice, and in 1957 gave birth to the first of her three sons.
An active member of the Republican party and a tireless community volunteer, O'Connor served as an Arizona assistant attorney general from 1965 to 1969, when she was appointed to a vacancy in the Arizona Senate. Subsequently elected to two full terms, she became the first woman to serve as majority leader in any state senate. In 1974, she ran successfully for trial judge, a position she held until she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals in 1979. Eighteen months later, President Ronald Reagan nominated her to the Supreme Court. In September 1981, Sandra Day O'Connor became the Court's 102nd justice and its first female member.
As one of America's most influential public officials, O'Connor has often been at the center of battles over such national issues as abortion rights and the death penalty. Her votes are generally conservative, but she frequently surprises observers with her political independence. A quietly determined woman who has blazed new trails for her sex, Sandra Day O'Connor has become a role model for Americans of both sexes and all ages.