Dec. 11--Cook County Circuit Judge Jean Prendergast Rooney was a skilled and dedicated attorney whose background and talents served her well on the bench.
"The law just suited her to a T," said friend and fellow attorney Julie Kemnitz. "It incorporated all her very best skills. She was methodical, she was thorough, she had a keen intellect.
"She had a sense of mission," said Kemnitz, who met Rooney when both started law school. "She wanted to work for justice, toward justice."
Rooney, 45, a resident of Chicago's Beverly neighborhood, died Tuesday of acute myeloid leukemia at the University of Chicago Medical Center, according to her husband, Tim. She was first diagnosed in September 2014 and had been treated with a stem cell transplant last May. "But the disease was never really in remission," her husband said.
The former Jean Prendergast was born in Oak Lawn. She attended St. Germaine Catholic School there, then went on to Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School in Chicago. She became interested in the law while in high school, when she worked in the law firm of her uncle Richard Prendergast.
She enrolled in a special program at Loyola University Chicago that included undergraduate studies followed by legal studies at Loyola's School of Law.
After law school, she clerked for Judge Mary Jane Theis, then on the Appellate Court, now an Illinois Supreme Court justice. She later clerked for the late Illinois Supreme Court Justice Mary Ann McMorrow.
In 1997, she went into private practice with attorney Thomas Crisham.
"She was an absolutely outstanding lawyer," Crisham said. "She was a scholar and one of the nicest people you'd ever meet."
Rooney was appointed to the Circuit Court in late 2010. At the time of her death, she was in the court's Chancery Division.
Crisham said her approach to people was exemplified when she was hearing mortgage foreclosure cases, in which many litigants were poor people, representing themselves and unfamiliar with court procedures.
"She conducted that (court case) call with such respect," Crisham said. "She treated those litigants just the same as if they were represented by some luminary of the bar. She was patient and she explained things and that's just the way she was as a lawyer and a judge."
"She brought her warmth and her open heart to those cases," Theis said.
In an emailed statement, Chief Cook County Circuit Judge Timothy Evans called her death "a tremendous loss to the judiciary, the public and the legal community.
"She served with distinction during her time with us, demonstrating both an outstanding work ethic and focused dedication to the effective administration of justice. Her grace and fortitude throughout her illness was remarkable, and we will certainly miss her," Evans wrote.
Rooney also was a mother of three young children.
"At one time, I think she had three children under 2 (years old)," Theis said. "She was able to be a very involved loving mother of three small children and at the same time practice at the highest levels of the legal profession."
She is also survived by her daughter, Colleen; sons Timothy and Thomas; parents Joan and Thomas Prendergast; and a brother, Thomas Prendergast.
Services were held.
Graydon Megan is a freelance reporter.
