First woman on U.S. top court has Alzheimer’s
Sandra Day O’Connor retiring from public life, including appellate work
WASHINGTON— Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, announced Tuesday in a frank and personal letter that she has been diagnosed with “the beginning stages of dementia, probably Alzheimer’s disease.”
The 88-year-old said doctors diagnosed her some time ago and as her condition has progressed she is “no longer able to participate in public life.” After her 2006 retirement from the high court, O’Connor appeared around the country championing an educational organization she founded and serving as a visiting appeals court judge, among other activities.
“While the final chapter of my life with dementia may be trying, nothing has diminished my gratitude and deep appreciation for the countless blessings in my life,” she wrote. She added: “As a young cowgirl from the Arizona desert, I never could have imagined that one day I would become the first woman justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.”
O’Connor’s announcement of her diagnosis came a day after an Associated Press story in which her son Jay O’Connor said his mother had begun to have challenges with her shortterm memory. Jay O’Connor also said hip issues have meant his mother now primarily uses a wheelchair and stays close to her home in Phoenix.
O’Connor wrote since “many people have asked about my current status and activities” she wanted to be “open about these changes.”
O’Connor was a state court judge before being nominated to the Supreme Court in 1981 by president Ronald Reagan, who fulfilled a campaign promise by nominating a woman to the high court.