When Firestone Wray was ready to go home to Arizona, she was asked to chair the Smithsonian National Board instead. O’Connor was not just opening doors for others, but she supported you and would not let you quit and everyone is better for it. For six years, I was on the board and did my work. Well, could I please her? Yes, I was in Washington, a family in Washington. And suddenly, I’m on the Smithsonian National Board. She was not in great shape, but she was very stoic. “And so, there she was being interviewed by some of the meanest men in the Senate and she just had an operation. Oh, yes, you can.”ĭescribing Justice O’Connor’s resilience, Firestone Wray recalled that she went through her confirmation convalescing from surgery. And so, she called me and she said, I want you to do this. “She had to drop all her club and non-profit things. And then suddenly, 1981, I do believe that’s the year she was called to the court.” So then, we went through 20 years of wonderfulness. I mean, you know, that was the way it worked. I’m in trouble all the time, so I have a number of lawyers, but she was always giving me advice whether I wanted it or not. I am not a lawyer or anything close to it. So, I would check with the boys, how are you doing with your mother? Could you talk to her? They would say, could you please talk to her? But that was the boys. She was an athlete on top of everything else, a good cook, a good mother.” We went on from tennis to golf, to skiing, to fishing. She is a wonderful tennis player and she is a team player, but also it is great to have her on your side if you are in trouble. Now, you do want to be on her team really and truly. When Firestone Wray first moved to Arizona, “one of the first people I met on the tennis court was Sandra Day O’Connor. Firestone Wray is active in civic and charitable pursuits, including being Co-Chairperson of the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute for American Democracy. They met in 1961 on the tennis court and have been friends since.
Firestone Wray soon found out that this meant more responsibilities for her as the Justice asked Firestone Wray to take on some of those duties. Firestone Wray spoke extensively about their friendship–their respective children, and public service with the Justice “before 1981,” when Justice O’Connor’s elevation to the Supreme Court ended “twenty years of wonderfulness.” Then, O’Connor had to drop her public service obligations in Arizona. Gay Firestone Wray is Justice O’Connor’s lifelong friend and she is committed to building and maintaining the legacy of the justice.
She is a legend and somebody that I will never, never, ever forget.” Gay Firestone Wray: “She’s our friend, but she is beyond that. Scott Bales, who took turns reflecting on Justice O’Connor variously as a friend, wife, mother, visionary, mentor, her legacy, and yes, one of our greatest legal minds. Moderated by Patricia Lee (“Trish”) Refo, the panelists comprised Gay Firestone Wray, Hon. She is the subject of books and of the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute for American Democracy. In addition, this lawyer, legislator, state judge, and Supreme Court Justice, is the author of five books and fifty-two published articles. She wrote 645 opinions during her 24 years on the Supreme Court. President Ronald Reagan nominated O’Connor and she was confirmed unanimously by the Senate and sworn in as the first female justice on September 25, 1981.
Thereafter, she was elected to a Superior Court judgeship in Maricopa County where she served until 1979, when she moved on to the Arizona Court of Appeals in Phoenix. When she rose to the position of majority leader, she was the first woman in the United States to occupy such a position. They have three sons: Scott, Brian, and Jay.Ī Republican, she was elected to the Arizona Senate in 1969. Upon her graduation from law school, she married John Jay O’Connor III, a classmate. She received undergraduate and law degrees from Stanford University. Sandra Day grew up on a large family ranch near Duncan, Arizona. She was known for her balanced and dispassionate opinions. Sandra Day O’Connor was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. This distinguished panel-including friends, two former justices of the Arizona Supreme Court who were her former law clerks, and a former President of the ABA-spoke about her extraordinary humanness. But not as many know about her as a friend, mother, wife, mentor, legislator, and private citizen, especially before she became a Supreme Court Justice. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor needs no introduction.
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