Sandra Day O'Connor Makes Alzheimer's Plea

Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor took her family's private battle with Alzheimer's disease public Wednesday as she urged Congress to speed research and aid to fight the coming epidemic of the mind-destroying illness. 

"Our nation certainly is ready to get deadly serious about this deadly disease," she told the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

She has a personal stake. "My beloved husband John suffers Alzheimer's," she said. "He is not in very good shape at present."

O'Connor stepped down as the first female Supreme Court justice in 2005 to move her husband to an assisted care center in Phoenix, near two of their children. Intensely private, she has said little until now of the family's experience except that she regretted having to leave the high court so soon.

According to a television news report in November, O'Connor's husband struck up a romance with a woman who is a fellow Alzheimer's patient and lives at the same assisted living center as him.

The retired justice wasn't jealous about the relationship and was pleased that her husband is comfortable at the center, the couple's son, Scott O'Connor, told KPNX in Phoenix in a broadcast that aired in November.

"Mom was thrilled that dad was relaxed and happy," Scott O'Connor said.

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