Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to be appointed an associate justice on the United States Supreme Court, credited her experiences growing up on a male-dominated ranch for her ability to work on a team of entirely male justices, according to Annette Polan, an artist known for her portraits of industry and government leaders who was a friend of O’Connor’s.

Polan visited the Jaffrey Meetinghouse on Friday evening for the second presentation in this year’s Amos Fortune Forum series, and recounted some of her personal stories from working with O’Connor for many years.

According to Polan, three days after becoming a Supreme Court justice, O’Connor hired a fitness instructor to teach an exercise class for women in the Supreme Court’s gym. Every morning at 8 a.m., O’Connor and her staff, as well as friends from outside the court, would convene in the gym for an hour-long fitness session. On Fridays, they would do yoga. Polan says she was invited to join by a friend, and rarely missed a session. It was there she first got to know O’Connor.

“When you sweat with somebody for five days a week for years, you get to know them very well. Eventually, you become friends,” O’Connor said.

Polan said O’Connor decided to have her portrait painted nine years after entering the Supreme Court, at the age of 60.

“She preferred to be memorialized before she got any older and before her looks changed. She was very practical,” said Polan. “While I would love to think that she chose me to paint the portrait because I was the best portrait-painter in the United States at the time, but the truth is she did want a woman to paint her, and she knew me and liked both me and my work. But most importantly, my Capitol Hill studio was conveniently located near the court so sitting would be easier to fit into her schedule.”

While working on O’Connor’s portrait, Polan listened to her stories, many of them about growing up on the Lazy B Ranch in her home state of Arizona. O’Connor recounted her days herding cattle and riding horses with the cowboys, who became her early mentors and friends. Despite the challenges of living in such a remote area – initially without electricity or running water – O’Connor cherished the simplicity and closeness to nature that the Lazy B offered, Polan said.

Despite the ranch's isolation, O’Connor attended school at her grandparents' home during the academic year, fostering a love for learning that eventually led her to Stanford University at just 16 years old. She moved into state politics, becoming the first woman to serve as Arizona Senate majority leader in 1972. Her career as a judge officially began when she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals in 1979, followed swiftly by her elevation to the Arizona Supreme Court. It was during this time that O'Connor's reputation caught the attention of President Ronald Reagan.

In 1981, Reagan nominated O'Connor as the first female justice in the court's history. O'Connor's tenure on the Supreme Court spanned from 1981 to 2006, during which she carved out a reputation as a centrist, often casting the deciding vote in closely contested cases, according to Polan.

Retirement from the bench did not dim O'Connor's passion for public service. She continued to advocate for judicial independence and remained a voice on issues ranging from health care to ethics in government. Polan said. She died Dec. 1, 2023.

The Amos Fortune Forum invites speakers to give presentations on relevant social, political and cultural topics affecting residents of the Monadnock region and beyond. The next forum will be on July 19 at 8 p.m. at the Meetinghouse in Jaffrey Center. The speaker will be Nora Suarez Lewis, presenting “The Journey from Enslaved to Patriot: Amos Fortune and Other Early African Americans in New Hampshire.” For information on this and future speakers, go to amosfortune.org.