AP Exclusive: Sandra Day O'Connor withdraws from public life

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court has stepped back from public life.

For more than a decade after leaving the court in 2006, O'Connor kept up an active schedule. She served as a visiting federal appeals court judge, spoke on issues she cared about and founded her own education organization. But the 88-year-old is now fully retired. She last made public appearances over two years ago. This summer she turned over an office she had kept at the Supreme Court to the court's most recently retired justice, Anthony Kennedy.

Her son Jay O'Connor said in a telephone interview that his mother began to have challenges with her short-term memory. That made some public events more difficult. He says she now stays close to her Phoenix home.

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