<div><p>John O'Connor, the husband of retired US Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor, died Wednesday in Arizona after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease, the US high court announced.</p><p>He was 79.</p><p>Sandra Day O'Connor left her seat on the Supreme Court in 2006 to look after her husband, who had suffered from Alzheimer's disease for nearly two decades at the time.</p><p>A year later, the former justice went public with the news that her husband had struck up a relationship with a woman patient at a care facility in Arizona who also had Alzheimer's.</p><p>Day O'Connor said she had done so to highlight the "staggering emotional toll" Alzheimer's disease takes on the families of sufferers.</p><p>Before falling ill in 1990, John O'Connor practiced law with firms in Arizona and Washington, where he moved with his wife when she became the first woman named to the Supreme Court in 1981.</p><p>In addition to his wife of nearly 57 years, O'Connor is survived by three sons and six grandchildren.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=63162659&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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