Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest

Now, for the first time in paperback, here is the remarkable story of Sandra Day O’Connor’s family and early life, her journey to adulthood in the American Southwest that helped make her the woman she is today—the first female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and one of the most powerful women in America. In this illuminating and unusual book, Sandra Day O’Connor tells, with her brother, Alan, the story of the Day family, and of growing up on the harsh yet beautiful land of the Lazy B ranch in Arizona.

Laced throughout these stories about three generations of the Day family, and everyday life on the Lazy B, are the lessons Sandra and Alan learned about the world, self-reliance, and survival, and how the land, people, and values of the Lazy B shaped them. This fascinating glimpse of life in the Southwest in the last century recounts an important time in American history, and provides an enduring portrait of an independent young woman on the brink of becoming one of the most prominent figures in America.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Sandra Day O'Connor was born in El Paso, Texas, and attended college and law school at Stanford University. She has been married to John O'Connor since 1952, and they have three sons. Nominated by President Reagan as associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, she took the oath of office on September 25, 1981, the first woman to do so.

H. Alan Day is a lifelong rancher who, after graduation from the University of Arizona, managed the Day ranch, the Lazy B, for thirty years. He also purchased and ran ranches in Nebraska and South Dakota, where he established a wild-horse sanctuary that, under contract with the U.S. government, cared for fifteen hundred wild horses. He lives in Tucson.