He wrote the 1973 Roe vs. Wade opinion that said women in most circumstances cannot be barred from having abortions.

"Author of the abortion decision," he said quietly in a rare on-the-record interview with The Associated Press in 1983. "We all pick up tags. I'll carry this one to my grave."

Blackmun, who received thousands of letters opposing the opinion, which was supported by a 7-2 court vote, seems an unlikely target for the moral outrage many of the messages expressed.

A devout Methodist, he neither smokes nor drinks.

Born in Nashville, Ill., Blackmun spent most of his boyhood in St. Paul, Minn., where his father was a fruit wholesaler, grocer and insurance salesman who had aspired to be a lawyer.

Blackmun entered law school at Harvard only after seriously considering a medical career. He combined the two interests during the 1950s as resident counsel of the Mayo Clinic.

He won a partial scholarship to Harvard and was admitted to the Minnesota bar in 1932. Although a Republican, he backed Hubert H. Humphrey's campaigns. Humphrey later backed him for a seat on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which he held for 11 years.

Blackmun was married in 1941 to Dorothy E. Clark, and they have three daughters.