United States Supreme Court Associate Justice. She served in the United States Supreme Court from September 25, 1981, to January 31, 2006. Born in El Paso, Texas, she grew up on a ranch that her family has owned for generations near Duncan, Arizona. In her youth, her family faced challenges such as a lack of electricity and water in the home. In 1946, she graduated from Austin High School as the sixth of her class and enrolled in Stanford University in the same year, earning a B.A. in Economics in 1950, and then continued her studies at Stanford Law School, graduating in 1952. During her time in Stanford, she achieved the Order of the Coif, served as an editor of the Stanford Law Review, and once dated future Chief Justice William Rehnquist. After graduating, she got married and became a mother of three sons when her husband was drafted and began her career as an attorney in 1955, first in Germany and then returning to Arizona years later. She was active in various political organizations in the 1960s, serving as a Member of the Maricopa County Young Country Republicans and as a member of Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign in 1964. She served as an assistant Attorney General of Arizona from 1965 to 1969 when she was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Arizona Senate and later won a full term in the 1970 general elections, during which she became the first woman to serve as a majority leader in the Arizona senate, serving only two full-terms before being appointed to serve as part of the Maricopa County Superior Court from 1975 to 1979, where she was evaluated to the Arizona Court of Appeals. On July 7, 1981, she was nominated by President Ronald Reagan as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court to succeed the retiring Potter Stewart and confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate on September 2, 1981, becoming the first woman to serve as a United States Supreme Court Justice. During her tenure in the Supreme Court, she was viewed as the swing vote due to her joining with justices on both sides of the political spectrum, usually siding with her more conservative colleagues while writing her own opinion separate from them. Notable cases she presided over during her tenure where she joined with the majority, including Lockyer V. Andrade, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, and Bush v. Gore. She announced her retirement in the United States Supreme Court on July 1, 2005, to spend more time with her husband, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease but didn't retire until January 31 of the following year, when she was succeeded by Samuel Alito. She remained active in public life following her retirement, speaking about her view of judicial independence in the United States and giving her opinions on what the future has in store for the Supreme Court. In 2018, she retired from public life following a diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease. She died in her home in Phoenix, Arizona, from complications of the disease five years later.