Justice Sandra Day O’Connor remembered at funeral

Mourners gathered at the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday to say their final farewells to former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

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The private funeral service came after O’Connor died Dec. 1 of complications related to dementia and a respiratory illness. She was 93.

Speaking to mourners on Tuesday, President Joe Biden remembered O’Connor as “an American pioneer.”

“Gracious and wise, civil and principled, Sandra Day O’Connor, a daughter of the American west, was a pioneer in her own right, breaking down the barriers in the legal and political worlds and the nation’s consciousness,” the president said.

As the first woman to be serve on the Supreme Court, Biden said she inspired generations of American women in all aspects of life.

“(Her service) opened doors, secured freedoms and proved that a woman can not only do anything a man can do, but many times do it a hell — heck — of a lot better,” he said.

Historian and author Evan W. Williams III, who wrote the 2019 biography “First: Sandra Day O’Connor,” said Justice Clarence Thomas called O’Connor “the glue, the reason (the Supreme Court) was civil.”

O’Conner served on the nation’s highest court from 1981 until her retirement in 2006.

In a eulogy, Chief Justice John Roberts said that since O’Connor’s death, he has spoken with several women who serve as judges and lawyers.

“They say the same thing. Younger people today cannot understand what it was like before Justice O’Connor in what now seems a distant past,” he said. “That distance is a measure of time, but it’s also a measure of Justice O’Connor’s life and work.

“In nearly a quarter-century on the court, she was a strong, influential and iconic jurist. Her leadership shaped the legal profession, making it obvious that judges are both women and men. The time when women were not on the bench seems so far away because Justice O’Connor was so good when she was on the bench. She was so successful that the barriers she broke down are almost unthinkable today.”

The former justice’s youngest son, Jay O’Connor, remembered his mother as “a force of nature” who “drew people in, took interest in them and made them feel special.”

He said that decades earlier, his mother wrote out a letter to her three sons that she kept sealed until just before her death. In the letter, she included her preferences for her funeral, which followed a theme of “justice on Earth,” Jay O’Connor said.

“In the letter she also wrote her final message to her sons. This included the following passage: ‘Our purpose in life is to help others along the way. May you each try to do the same,’” he said. “What a beautiful, powerful and totally Sandra Day O’Connor sentiment. And it is so clear to Scott, Brian and me that she lived her own life in complete accord with this purpose.”

O’Connor is survived by her sons Scott (Joanie) O’Connor, Brian (Shawn) O’Connor, and Jay (Heather) O’Connor; six grandchildren, Courtney, Adam, Keely, Weston, Dylan and Luke; and her brother, Alan Day, Sr.

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Sandra Day O’Connor honored at funeral The hearse carrying the casket of the late retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor arrives at the Washington National Cathedral for her funeral on December 19, 2023 in Washington, DC. O’Connor, the first woman appointed to be a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, died at the age of 93 on December 1. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)