Birth Name: Sandra Day
Date of Birth: March 26, 1930
Place of Birth: El Paso, Texas, United States
Date of Death: December 1, 2023
Place of Death: Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.
Ethnicity: English, as well as remote Irish, Scottish, and Dutch
Sandra Day O’Connor was an American attorney, jurist, and politician. She was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, from September 25, 1981 to January 31, 2006. She had previously been the Republican leader in the Arizona Senate; a Judge of the Maricopa County Superior Court for Division 31, from January 9, 1975 to December 14, 1979, and a Judge of the Arizona Court of Appeals for Division One, from December 14, 1979 to September 25, 1981, and was later Chancellor of the College of William & Mary, from October 1, 2005 to February 3, 2012. She was the first female justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. A moderate conservative, she was known for her detailed research in opinions, and often concurred with the majority while seeking to limit its reach.
Justice O’Connor was the daughter of Ada Mae (Wilkey) and Harry Alfred Day, and was raised on her family’s 198,000-acre family cattle ranch, near Duncan, Arizona. Her parents were born in Arizona. Her father was of both Colonial New England and recent English immigrant ancestry, and her mother’s family had deep roots in the American South. Her sister was politician, educator, and psychologist Ann Day, who was in the Arizona Legislature. Justice O’Connor co-wrote a book about her childhood with her brother, H. Alan Day. Having grown up in an isolated, rural, area, she lived with her grandmother in El Paso for schooling.
Justice O’Connor was married to lawyer John Jay O’Connor, until his death, with whom she had three children. She was an Episcopalian.
Justice O’Connor’s paternal grandfather was Henry Clay Day (the son of Hollis Day and Eliza L. Flanders). Henry Clay was born in Vermont. Hollis was the son of Capt. Luke Day and Latty/Lattice C. Cobb. Eliza was born in New Hampshire, the daughter of Philip Flanders and Parle/Parlee Bradford.
Justice O’Connor’s paternal grandmother was Alice Edith Hilton (the daughter of John Price Hilton and Frances Sybil Hurnall). Alice was born in Jackson County, Missouri, to British emigrant parents. John was born in Sevenoaks District, Kent, England, the son of Giles Hilton and Mary Van Heythuysen. Frances was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the daughter of The Rev. John Hurnall, from London, who was Vicar of Eggington, Bedfordshire, and of Mary Badham, whose own father, Charles Badham, M.D., F.R.S., also from London, is credited as inventing the term bronchitis.
Justice O’Connor’s maternal grandfather was Willis Wilson Wilkey (the son of John Newton Wilkey and Mary Katherine “Kate” Walters). Willis was born in Texas. John was the son of Pvt. William Wilkey and Mary Susan Lynn. Justice O’Connor’s great-grandmother Mary was the daughter of John Walters and Martha T. Hall.
Justice O’Connor’s maternal grandmother was Mamie A. Scott (the daughter of Andrew Scott and Evelyn Brooks). Mamie was born in Texas. Andrew was the son of Jonathan Hampton Scott, a Texas Ranger, and of Diana M. Brown.
Sources: Genealogies of Sandra’s parents – https://www.findagrave.com
Genealogy of Sandra Day O’Connor (focusing on her father’s side) – https://www.geni.com
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