Justice Sandra Day O’Connor  Sandra Day O’Connor (1930   ) – Sandra Day O’Connor was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1981. She became the court’s first woman judge. O’Connor was born in El Paso, Texas, in 1930, but grew up in Arizona. As a child, she rounded up cattle and drove a tractor on her family’s Lazy B Ranch. After O’Connor graduated from Stanford University, she practiced law in Arizona until 1965. For many years after, she was an Arizona lawmaker—serving in the state Senate from 1969 through 1975—and a judge. Justice O’Connor retired from the United States Supreme Court in summer 2005. She returned to live in her beloved Arizona. made Sandra Day O’Connor bold Chapter 12 • Arizona Faces and Features  123