Dorothy Clark Blackmun, 95, wife of the late justice

WASHINGTON -- Dorothy Clark Blackmun, whose late husband, Harry Blackmun, wrote the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide, died July 13 in Winter Park, Fla. She was 95.

Justice Blackmun served on the high court from 1970 to 1994 and was the author of the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.

The decision prompted death threats, and in 1985 a gunman fired a bullet into the Blackmuns' suburban Arlington, Va. apartment. They were home at the time, but were not injured.

The couple had wed in 1941 after meeting during a doubles tennis match, and had three daughters. Mrs. Blackmun was a partner in a dress shop in Rochester, Minn., while her husband served on the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

President Nixon elevated Harry Blackmun to the Supreme Court in 1970. When he retired at age 85, he was the court's most liberal member. Mr. Blackmun died in 1999 from complications following a hip replacement surgery.

After her husband's death, Mrs. Blackmun moved to Winter Park. A Minnesota native who went by the nickname ``Dottie," she will be buried with her husband in Arlington Cemetery. Her daughters, Nancy, Sally, and Susan, plan a memorial service this fall in Washington.