Remembering Sandra Day O’Connor: A Little Trivia

Tribute to her father and the ranching way of life

Letter from Sandra Day O'Connor
The Lordsburg-Hidalgo County Museum, in Lordsburg, N.M. holds a special letter from then Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor

I am a big fan of museums in general, and the delights found in smaller county museums around the U.S. Here’s the text of this framed letter on then Justice O’Connor’s U.S. Supreme Court letterhead:


August 17, 2001

To the Hidalgo County Cowboy Hall of Fame

This month you will honor the memory of my father, Harry A. Day, by inducting him , posthumously, into the Cowboy Hall of Fame. His family and I are very appreciative of this honor. He spent his entire life as a cattle rancher in Hidalgo County and in Greenlee County, Arizona. The Lazy B Ranch, the well being of the livestock and the people who worked there was the focus of his life. He understood better than most the delicate balance and interrelationship of all living things.

I regret that I cannot be present at the ceremony.

With appreciation,

Sandra Day O’Connor


There’s also a copy of “Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest” that the justice wrote with her younger brother, H. Alan Day, in the museum.


This is a collection of photos from the museum. Note the typewriters with the long carriages. There is a WWII Air Reconnaissance Camera, and an oil-burning Sciopticon lantern movie projector as well.

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1 Response

  1. December 27, 2023

    […] Lordsburg-Hidalgo County Museum displays a letter from the former Supreme Court Justice, referring to her life as a rancher’s […]

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