Sandra Day O’Connor’s sons speak on their mother’s legacy

In a previously recorded segment, Scott and Brian O’Connor joined Arizona Horizon to speak on Justice O’Connor’s legacy and her impact as a mother.

The conversation opened with a question that asked whether or not it is difficult to separate “mom” from “Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.”

“You have to realize that we didn’t understand that she was that different until we were pretty well along toward adulthood,” Scott said.

Scott provided one of the first examples of when he realized this, stating he was called home over winter break during his freshman year of college due to his mother receiving hard press from Republican leadership in Arizona.

“Whether you’re a well-known executive business person or someone serving in the Supreme Court, there’s that professional life, and then there’s the life you lead with your family and your friends when you can relax and do things. And our folks were all about doing things,” Brian said.

Growing up, Brian and Scott were never pushed toward one, certain career path.

“She had a nice sense of allowing us to be ourselves rather than trying to force us to be copies of herself or Dad,” Scott said.

Because of this, their home was always filled with versatile activities.

“We were kind of the home base for the entire neighborhood of kids with a basketball court, volleyball, trampoline, and all those sorts of things. It was ongoing, organized chaos,” Brian said.

When O’Connor was growing up, she had to create and invent her own fun, which was a trait passed on to her sons. According to Scott, his mother was all about organizing fun activities that did not include sitting at home in front of the television.