Justice O' Connor was born in 1903 and grew up on a ranch that sat on the Arizona-New Mexico border. When she was only 4 years old, her mother began teaching her lessons at home. By the time she was ready to go to school, her parents felt that she needed a better education than that which was offered in the schools surrounding their home. For this reason Sandra moved to El Paso, Texas to live with her grandmother and attend Radford School for Girls.
During her summer vacations she would go home to the ranch and work. Her duties included several jobs such as driving tractors, mending fences, branding cattle, and riding in a roundup.
At the age of 16 she graduated from high school and decided to go to Stanford University to continue her education, and study law. It took her only five years to finish all of her courses. She graduated Magna Cum Laude, which means "with great distinction". She was also ranked third in her class.
She went to Los Angeles and San Francisco to search for a job. Although she had graduated with honors, none of the law firms she visited would hire her. They said that they had never hired a woman before and they didn't want to now. After searching for a period of time she was finally offered a job...as a secretary at a law firm. She refused the job. She had a dream of becoming a lawyer, and was not going to settle for anything less.
During this time in her life, she married John Jay O'Connor III. She had met him at Stanford. He was also a lawyer.
Finally, Sandra got a job as a deputy county attorney in California. After working for awhile, her and her husband went to Germany and practiced law there for 3 years.
In 1957 they moved back to Phoenix, Arizona. Sandra opened her own law firm and practiced from her office. She and her husband eventually had children and Sandra decided to take some time off to be with her kids. While at home she volunteered for many organizations including the Salvation Army.
After several years she knew that she wanted to go back to practicing law, and became the Attorney General of Arizona. After a few years she then became a state senator.
During her political career, Sandra decided that she loved law much more then politics. She decided to run in an election to become a judge...and she won! She was now the Maricopa County Superior Court Judge of Arizona.
During her service as a judge she was asked to join the Arizona Court of Appeals by Bruce Babbit, the Governor of Arizona. This is a very important job and Sandra was honored to be asked. She stayed at this job until President Ronald Reagan approached her and asked her to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. She accepted, and was sworn in on Sept. 25, 1981.
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