Sandra Day O’Connor specialised in breaking into male bastions
The first woman justice on America’s Supreme Court died on December 1st, aged 93
That Arizona sun was hot, and Sandra Day, then a teenager, was in the high desert alone. She had taken the disreputable old Chevy pickup on a two-and-a-half-hour drive to where her father, and the cowboys of his 200,000-acre Lazy B ranch, were branding cattle. The chuck-wagon box held the lunch she had packed for them herself, coleslaw and potatoes and applesauce cake. But now the left rear tyre was totally flat.
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This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline “A cowgirl on the bench”
Obituary December 9th 2023
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