Sandra Day OConnor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, died at age 93, the court announced Friday.

The woman who often referred to herself as FWOTSC (First Woman on the Supreme Court) was a justice for 26 years, serving as the swing vote in cases addressing abortion and affirmative action. (OConnor, however, hated the term swing vote, saying it suggested a person who made their rulings on a whim.) She retired from the court in 2006.

My appointment just opened the doors, and it was not only in the United States, OConnor said in 2012 . It immediately had an effect in other parts of the world, with opportunities for women. It was quite amazing to see.

When the former associate justice announced she was retiring from public life in 2018, Chief Justice John Roberts praised her legacy .

Justice OConnor is of course a towering figure in the history of the United States and indeed the world, he wrote. She broke down barriers for women in the legal profession to the betterment of that profession and the country as a whole. She serves as a role model not only for girls and women, but for all those committed to equal justice under law.

OConnor was born March 26, 1930, and grew up on a cattle ranch in Arizona, an upbringing that she would later say shaped her views and her judicial philosophy. In 2002, OConnor published a book , Lazy B: Growing up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest, with her brother, H. Alan Day, about their childhood.