Dorothy Blackmun, 95; Widow of Late Supreme Court Justice
Dorothy Clark Blackmun, 95, whose late husband wrote the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide, died Thursday in Winter Park, Fla.
Her husband, Harry Blackmun, served on the high court from 1970 to 1994, and was the author of the 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling.
The decision prompted death threats, and in 1985 a gunman fired a bullet into the Blackmuns’ apartment in Arlington, Va. They were home at the time but not injured.
The couple had wed in 1941 after meeting during a doubles tennis match four years earlier, and had three daughters.
She was a partner in a dress shop in Rochester, Minn., while her husband served on the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.
President Nixon elevated Harry Blackmun to the Supreme Court in 1970. When he retired at age 85, Blackmun was the court’s most liberal member. He died in 1999 from complications following hip replacement surgery.
After her husband’s death, Dorothy Blackmun moved to Florida. A Minnesota native who went by the nickname “Dottie,” she will be buried with her husband in Arlington National Cemetery.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
