AP Photo/Harry Cabluck, File
- Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has died, the Supreme Court announced.
- O'Connor made history as the first woman to serve on the country's highest court in 1981.
- In October 2018, O'Connor announced she had been diagnosed with dementia.
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who became the first woman to serve on the nation's highest court, died on Friday, the high court announced.
She was 93.
The Supreme Court said in a statement that O'Connor died Friday morning in Phoenix, Arizona "of complications related to advanced dementia, probably Alzheimer's, and a respiratory illness."
Chief Justice John Roberts said in a statment that O'Connor "blazed an historic trail as our nation's first female Justice." O'Connor, he said, "met that challenge with undaunted determination, indisputable ability, and engaging candor."
The justices on the court "mourn the loss of a beloved colleague, a fiercely independent defender of the rule of law, and an eloquent advocate for civics education," Roberts said.
O'Connor was a trailblazer for women in law and was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1981 by then-President Ronald Reagan. She retired as an associate justice in 2006.
Before her tenure on the nation's top court, O'Connor served as the Republican leader of the Arizona Senate.
In October 2018, O'Connor announced in a personal letter to the public that she had been diagnosed with the "beginning stages of dementia, probably Alzheimer's disease."
She said she had been diagnosed some time ago, and that the condition had progressed.
The letter, which was first released by The Associated Press, said O'Connor was taking a step back from the public eye to focus her remaining time with her family and on her health.
"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 US Supreme Court."
O'Connor was the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court
O'Connor grew up on an Arizona ranch near the New Mexico Border, the Associated Press reported in 2018.
She went to Stanford University for college and law school, where she became close friends with the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist.
The pair dated briefly when classmates in the early 1950s. Later, when Rehnquist was working in Washington, DC, he sent O'Connor a letter proposing marriage, NPR reported after the proposal was discovered by a biographer in 2018.
But O'Connor declined, as she was already dating John O'Connor, whom she met while proofreading for the Stanford Law Review. Pair would go on to marry in 1952, six months after Sandra Day graduated.
Prior to her tenure in the Supreme Court, O'Connor served as an assistant to the Attorney General of Arizona from 1965 to 1969, was elected to the Arizona state senate for two terms, and worked as a state judge in the Maricopa Superior Court.
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At 51 years old in 1981, she was nominated to the US Supreme Court by President Reagan, who had promised to make history with a female justice.
Though anti-abortion activists criticized O'Connor, a conservative moderate, she was confirmed by the Senate to the Supreme Court by a near-unanimous 99-0 vote.
On the bench, O'Connor established herself as a key swing voter in the Supreme Court, in cases including Grutter v. Bollinger, which affirmed the right of state colleges and universities to use affirmative action, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which affirmed a woman's right to have an abortion.
She also concurred with the majority in the Bush v. Gore decision, which settled a recount of Florida's popular vote in the 2000 presidential election.
O'Connor retired from the Supreme Court in 2005
O'Connor announced her retirement in 2005 after her husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. She was 75 years old.
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She was replaced on the Supreme Court by Justice Samuel Alito, who was nominated by then-President George W. Bush and was sworn in on January 31, 2006.
Three years later, when asked how she felt about the Supreme Court becoming more conservative and moving away from rulings she had helped shape, O'Connor said she was "disappointed," according to AP.
Following her husband's death in 2009, O'Connor founded iCivics, an organization that works to promote civic education in schools through free, interactive online games and lessons.
O'Connor is survived by her three adult sons, six grandchildren, and her brother, according to the Supreme Court's statement.