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Father beams, mother cries at daughter’s nomination

July 7, 1981

ITEM DETAILS

Type: Newspaper article

Author: Peter Brock

Source: El Paso Herald-Post

Collection: The Kauffman-Henry Collection

Date is approximate: No

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RAILROAD DRAW, GREENLEE COUNTY, Ariz. – The quiet Lazy B ranchhouse suddenly erupted early today with a flurry of congratulatory phone calls to Harry and Ada Mae Day, who were trying to watch President Ronald Reagan nominate their daughter, Sandra Day O’Connor, as the 102nd Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Day, a retired 83-year-old rancher and Greenlee County native, beamed while watching Reagan call his daughter “a person for all seasons.”

“SHE SURE LOOKS LIKE HER father doesn’t she,” Day laughed proudly while watching television pictures of his daughter. “That’d be a shame if the Senate didn’t confirm her, wouldn’t it?” he joked with his wife, who dabbed tears from her eyes.

Day and his wife became slightly irritable as White House reporters badgered Attorney General William French Smith about Judge O’Connor’s position on abortion. “I basically know what it is,” he said, and then refused to explain his daughter’s abortion philosophy. “She’s so conscientious, though, she won’t even give me a legal opinion any more. As a judge, she can’t. So she refers me to her husband.”

“SHE’S A VERY THOUGHTFUL person. I’ve never known anyone who didn’t like her. She is a dear person, and she isn’t the type who would try to high-hat anybody,” said her mother. “She’s excelled in everything she’s done.”

“I don’t suppose it would be any use to try to call her now,” said Day, who added Judge O’Connor

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