Posted on 10/31/2018 2:22:58 PM PDT by billorites
Some personal secrets are so well-kept that even family and friends are oblivious. So it is with the story of the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist's marriage proposal to a Stanford Law School classmate in the early 1950s.
When 19-year-old Sandra Day entered Stanford Law School in 1949, her frequent seatmate was 26-year-old Bill Rehnquist, attending Stanford on the GI Bill. The two shared their equally meticulous class notes and eventually were dating regularly. But by December of their second year, she broke up with him while somehow retaining what she called their "study buddy" relationship; she even entered the moot-court competition with Rehnquist, and the pair finished second.
When Rehnquist graduated a semester early and went off to Washington, D.C., for a Supreme Court clerkship, Sandra wrote to her parents that school "does not seem the same" without him. "We all truly hated to see him leave, in spite of, perhaps, even because of, all the funny things he does. He certainly has a brilliant career ahead," she added.
By then, Sandra was dating John O'Connor, whom she met over a proofreading assignment on the prestigious Stanford Law Review. After their first meeting, John suggested they finish their proofreading over a beer, and the two soon were inseparable. John was charming and funny, and unlike a couple of beaus who had jilted her, he was not cowed by her smarts.
But in March, just about the time that Day and O'Connor were going out on their 40th date in 40 days, Sandra got a letter from Rehnquist telling her he wanted to see her to talk about "important things." And in a March 29 letter, he popped the question. "To be specific, Sandy, will you marry me this summer?"
The future chief justice of the United States was proposing to the woman who, years later, would become the first woman to serve on the nation's highest court.
The reveal comes in a new book entitled First by author Evan Thomas, set to be published in March 2019. Thomas, while doing his research, found the Rehnquist letters among O'Connor's correspondence.
Sandra Day would marry John O'Connor, becoming Sandra Day O'Connor in 1952. As for Rehnquist, not long after Sandra said "no," he would start dating Nan Cornell, the woman he would marry in 1953. According to Thomas, Rehnquist would tell a friend shortly before his death in 2005 that Nan, who died in 1991, was the only woman he ever loved.
Friends, family and colleagues didn't know
The two justices never made a secret of their dating relationship at Stanford, though both played it down. But it appears that neither friends, colleagues nor family knew of the marriage proposal — until now.
O'Connor's son, Jay, says that he and his siblings were "surprised," though they knew their mother and Rehnquist had dated. That, observes Jay, "was a different era."
"Dating was pretty innocent in the '50s," he says, adding that "multiple men proposed to my mom when she was in college and law school, and ultimately my dad was the one who was the real deal."
Most remarkable was that O'Connor and Rehnquist remained close personal friends. They both ended up living in Phoenix, socialized together often and even were neighbors, according to Jay. And when Rehnquist went to Washington in the Nixon administration and was later appointed to the Supreme Court, the two stayed in touch.
Indeed, Rehnquist is said to have been one of those who privately suggested O'Connor to President Reagan as a potential Supreme Court nominee in 1981.
"It was just an amazing accident of history that ... my mom and her friend and law school classmate ended up on the Supreme Court together," Jay says.
"Not only did they have a wonderful working relationship for over 25 years on the court, they had a wonderful friendship their entire life."
Maybe my mind is just dirty... but I can’t help but wonder if the flame between these two still smoldered... and there was a little monkey business going on in chambers.
And now Justice O’Conner has announced she has Alzheimer’s. Her husband, while in a nursing facility with Alzheimer’s, fell in love with another woman in the facility and didn’t remember Sandra. I wish her all the best. Her later years can’t have been easy on her.
...”multiple men proposed to my mom when she was in college and law school...
I’m 50.
So I don’t know 1950.
But I assume if you wanted action from the average girl you had to marry her.
It wasn’t a bad deal. Trading sex for a lifetime of love and commitment from a man,
Now it’s traded for a shot of JD.
It is :)
But that doesn’t mean you can’t be right :)
Two guys proposed to my mom. She ended up marrying the guy that was going to stay locally and had a better career suited to family life - my dad.
Dad passed away at the age of 72.
Two years later she was visiting with the sister of her other beau. “Oh my brother Chuck will be up next month, we should get together again - he would love to see you again after all these years!”
After a brief courtship of a year they were married! My mom at the age of 74 IIRC.
WOW.
First, sorry about the loss of your pop at what is now considered a relatively young age. My pop was 63, so I know it sucks.
Second, THAT story is a Reader’s Digest contest winner if EVER there was one.
Joined to Christ’s, she should offer her sufferings up in reparation for being a vote upholding legal abortion in this country.
I've known both men and women who couldn't keep their wedding vows and ruined it for a cheap thrill. I've also worked side by side with women who were my boss, my equal, or my employee and nothing needs to be different because you're just working.
A more exact title would be:
O'Connor, Rehnquist And A Supreme College Proposal
Back when justices came from more than just the same Ivy League schools and prep schools.
Great story.
Study relationships in high school and college for my siblings and me (not together) often became the core/starter for many long term and interesting relationships.
My high school, junior year, 4 guys and I became not only good friends but study buddies. After hs graduation, two went to a different university, and 3 of us ended up in the same university and later as business school students.
We added two more guys from the business school, my junior college year. It worked. We were graduated with honors and in 4 years. Before and after graduation, we helped each other get jobs and get promoted.
Later, if we had bad bosses, our long time friends would tell us to find a new job and help us. Or they would say “Suck it up get your act together!”
One guy, became my best man a year+ later at my wedding.
Another guy has been my best longtime friend going back to high school. We are now about 1500+ miles apart and still talk a lot on the phone. We were room mates our senior year in college. We did a lot of studying with our business group in our basement apartment.
My first two years in college, I, also, ended up in a coed study group for the liberal arts stuff. That was some interesting and good times. A home town male friend in one of the first study groups married a gal in that study group, and they still are married 60 years later.
A sister’s best friend in high school and later some of their sorority gals became study buddies in study groups for 4+ years in college. They are still good friends and live within an or hour or so from each other. A couple of gals from their study groups married guys, who had joined the study groups. Two of those guys had sisters in that study group.
Besides better grades, having people of the same age with similar interests to talk about problems and opportunities was a great thing.
In our business study group, we got to the point, where we could predict basically what our professors would quiz us on. That was an extra re what did our future bosses expect from us. We learned what the value of good intel and knowing your market was.
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