Sandra Day O'Connor: 'Education: A Big Idea in Today's America'
O'Connor was elected and served as judge of the Maricopa County Superior Court until 1979, when she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals. President Reagan nominated her as an associate justice of the Supreme Court, and she took her seat Sept. 25, 1981. Justice O'Connor retired from the Supreme Court on Jan. 31, 2006. Sandra Day O'Connor is the author of a memoir, "Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest" and "Finding Susie," a children's picture book based on her own childhood.