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Sandra Day O'Connor

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Trailblazing Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's life in photos

O'Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court and the justice who held the court's center for more than a generation, died Friday She was 93.

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Sandra Day O'Connor during her college years.

O'Connor grew up on the Lazy B, a 160,000-acre cattle ranch in the high desert country straddling the Arizona-New Mexico border. She graduated from law school at Stanford University.

Following four years of service in the Arizona attorney general's office, she was appointed to fill a vacancy in the state senate in 1969. After being re-elected, she became the first woman in the country to be a state senate majority leader.

She then turned her attention to the courts, running for and winning a position as a Maricopa County Superior Court judge.

Sandra Day during her college years. 

AP
Ronald Reagan Sandra Day O'Connor

O'Connor came highly recommended when President Ronald Reagan was looking for someone to help him keep a campaign promise to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court. Here, Reagan presents his nominee to members of the media in the Rose Garden on July 15, 1981.

AP
Sandra Day O'Connor

O'Connor is sworn in before the Senate Judiciary Committee during her confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on Sept. 9, 1981.
John Duricka / AP
O'Connor greets Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., left, and Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., before the start of her confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill on Sept. 10, 1981. Thurmond chaired the Judiciary Committee.

O'Connor greets Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., left, and Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., before the start of her confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill on Sept. 10, 1981. Thurmond chaired the Judiciary Committee.

AP
Sandra Day O'Connor

O'Connor walks through the lobby of a Washington apartment building Sept. 15, 1981, to meet reporters to make a statement on the confirmation vote earlier in the day.

Dennis Cook / AP
Sandra Day O'Connor

O'Connor waves after her unanimous confirmation on Capitol Hill on Sept. 21, 1981. Standing with her from left: Attorney General William French Smith, Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz., Vice President George H.W. Bush, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C.

J. Scott Applewhite / AP
Sandra Day O'Connor

O'Connor is sworn in by Chief Justice Warren Burger at the Supreme Court on Sept. 25, 1981. Holding two family Bibles is her husband, John J. O'Connor.

Michael Evans / AP
Sandra Day O'Coonor

O'Connor poses for a photograph outside the Supreme Court on Sept. 25, 1981. From left, her father, Harry Day, her husband, her mother, Ada Mae Day, and Burger.

Bob Daugherty / AP
Sandray Day O'Connor

O'Connor drives past photographers as she arrives for her first day of work at the Supreme Court on Oct. 5, 1981.
Bob Daugherty / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sandra Day O'Connor

The nine justices, including the newly sworn-in O'Connor, pose with Reagan in the conference room of the Supreme Court on Sept. 25, 1981. From left, Harry A. Blackmun, Thurgood Marshall, William J. Brennan, Burger, Reagan, O'Connor, Byron White, Lewis Powell, William Rehnquist and John Paul Stevens.

Bill Fitz-Patrick / White House via AP
Image: Kuhn O'Connor

O'Connor and Margaret Kuhn, founder of the Gray Panthers, pose with bouquets after receiving awards at the 1982 Gimbel Awards luncheon in Philadelphia on May 5, 1982.

Steve Falk / AP
Image: Thatcher O'Connor

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher welcomes O'Connor to No. 10 Downing St., prior to talks at the premier's residence in London on July 25, 1984.

John Redman / AP Pool
O'Connor greets Coretta Scott King, widow of the slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, at the Episcopal Church Convention in New Orleans where they appeared on a panel on Sept. 8, 1982.

O'Connor greets Coretta Scott King, wife of the slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., at the Episcopal Church Convention in New Orleans where they appeared on a panel Sept. 8, 1982.

Jack Thornell / AP
O'Connor and her husband John pause Friday, Aug. 28, 1987 as they navigate a steep stretch of China's famed Great Wall at Badaling, near Beijing during private visit to China. 

O'Conner met John in law school at Stanford University. They married in 1952 and had three children.

At age 75, O'Connor abruptly announced her intention to step down from the Supreme Court to attend to John, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. He died, at age 79, in 2009.

O'Connor and her husband, John, pause on Aug. 28, 1987 as they navigate a steep stretch of China's famed Great Wall at Badaling, near Beijing, during a private visit to that country.

O'Connor met her future husband in law school at Stanford University. They married in 1952 and had three children.

At age 75, O'Connor abruptly announced her intention to step down from the Supreme Court to attend to her husband, who had Alzheimer's disease. He died in 2009 at age 79.

Neal Ulevich / AP
Image: O'CONNOR

O'Connor in her office at the Supreme Court on April 7, 2003.

From the early 1990s until her retirement in 2006, she was the indisputable swing justice, often casting the deciding vote in the court's most contentious cases. Her lack of a consistent judicial philosophy rankled some, but others praised her practical bent as a moderating influence.

She sometimes sided with the court's conservatives, approving taxpayer-funded vouchers for students at religious schools, voting to end the 2000 Florida recount between George W. Bush and Al Gore, and advocating for states' rights against federal control.

But she joined with the court's liberals in upholding affirmative action in college admissions, approving the creation of more congressional districts with Black voters in the majority, and keeping a wall of separation between government and religion.

Rock Bowner / AP
Image: Sandra Day O'Connor

O'Connor, a native of El Paso, Texas, dons a cowboy hat given to her during an event at the University of Houston Law Center, in Houston on March 10, 2005.

James Nielsen / Houston Chronicle pool via AP
Sandra Day O'Connor

The justices gather for a group portrait at the Supreme Court Building on Oct. 31, 2005.

From left in front row are: Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. From left in back row are: Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice David Souter, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas and Associate Justice Stephen Breyer.

J. Scott Applewhite / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sandra Day O'Connor

O'Connor pledges allegiance to the flag Sept. 17, 2005 at an open-air citizenship hearing in Gilbert, Arizona.

She presided over the hearing during which 52 nationals from 17 countries took the oath of U.S. citizenship.

Matt York / AP
Sandra Day O'Connor

President George W. Bush with Roberts, second left, Stevens and O'Connor in the chief justice's Conference Room at the Supreme Court on Oct. 3, 2005.

Ken Heinen / AP
Image: O'CONNOR

O'Connor looks down as the casket bearing Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's body is brought to the Supreme Court on Sept. 6, 2005.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
Sandra Day O'Connor

President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to O'Connor on Aug. 12, 2009.
J. Scott Applewhite / AP
Image: Sandra Day O'Connor

O'Connor on March 1, 2010, in her 1958 adobe home that was moved and restored at the Arizona Historical Society Museum in Tempe, Arizona. As the first female justice, her every action was scrutinized, attention she would later say was intimidating.

"It's thrilling, in a way, to be the first to do something, the first woman ever to serve on the court. But it's dreadful if you're the last. And if I didn't do the job well, that's what would happen."

David Wallace / The Arizona Republic via AP
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