I have to admit that Frank is usually the first to spot a celebrity ... but sitting in the Phoenix airport waiting to return to San Francisco from a training I saw a group of security escorting a person to the gate. The hamster in my head started spinning around and finally I recognized Sandra Day O'Conner.
I have to admit that prior to the recent judicial nominations, I wouldn't have put to much on my knowledge of the woman but there she was sitting in first class and when we made eye contact, she gave me a nod and a smile, which I returned.
Here's a little bio or our first female Supreme Court justice ... which I found on Yahoo and did not write myself.
On March 26, 1930 the first woman of the Justice Supreme Court was born. Her name was Sandra Day. Her home was the Lazy B Ranch, it had 170,000 acres and 6,000 heads of cattle.
Sandra was a bright child. Even though she lived on a ranch, her main activity was reading. Her parents wanted her to attend a good school, so they sent her to live with her grandparents in the Texas city of El Paso. She skipped several grades and graduated high school at sixteen. Sandra was accepted to Stanford University where she graduated and attended law school. It is in law school where she met her husband John Jay O'Connor III. They would have three sons together, Scott, Brian, and Jay.
It was hard for Sandra to get her first job as a lawyer. In the 1959's there were very few women lawyers. She was an attorney for the government and was active in the Republican Party. She was also an Arizona State Senator. After a while she left the senate to become a judge. Judge O'Connor had an excellent reputation for being very prepared to hear each case brought before her. In 1981 President Reagan appointed her to the U.S. Supreme Court (the highest court in the United States.) She was unanimously confirmed.
