By Hon. Mary M. Schroeder.
Sandra Day was raised in the Tenth Circuit and spent her childhood among cowboys on the Lazy B Ranch that straddled Arizona and New Mexico. She rode real horses, not rocking horses, and her first pet was a bobcat. She became a true daughter of the Ninth Circuit after she went to Stanford, married John O’Connor, and settled in Phoenix. When I moved to Phoenix in 1969, she was working in the State Attorney General’s Office, one of only about a half-dozen women lawyers in town. I interviewed for a job at her husband’s firm only to be told that they would never hire a woman lawyer, but one of their partner’s was married to one. I didn’t know whether they were bragging or complaining. Sandra went on to run for the legislature and became majority leader of the State Senate before going on the State trial bench. Full Text.