O’Connor will do well, her colleagues say

Phoenix, Ariz. Those who know her best are convinced sandra Day O’Connor is well suited to become a national symbol – the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. “None could have met that challenge better than she,” said Superior Judge Robert Broomfield, with whom O’Connor served as a trial judge for four years. Her colleagues and acquaintances use similar phrases in describing sandra Day O’Connor – the judge, lawyer, state legislator, civic activist, mother of three. Phrases like “stem but fair,” “dedicated perfectionist,” “highly organized” are some. Nominated by President Reagan last week as “a person for all seasons,” O’Connor would fill the vacancy created by Potter Stewart’s retirement. Senate confirmation of her unique place In the court’s 191-year history appears assured, despite opposition from antiabortion forces. But who Is this 51-year-old woman who was unknown on the national scene until two weeks ago? Ada Mae Day remembers her daughter sandra, the oldest of three children, as “an active child, very fast and willing to accept responsibility” on the family’s sprawling cattle ranch In southeast Arizona, hard by the New Mexico border. As a child, her mother recalls, Sandra liked both to read and to help the Lazy B’s ranch hands do some of their toughest chores . When she en tered her teens, Sandra returned to El Paso, Texas, her birthplace, to live with her maternal grandmother and attend the Radford School for girls, called a “f inishing school” back then . She