Jan. 13--Tonya Moore was a kidney transplant recipient who owed her health to a kind friend from church, loved her job and doted on family, her loved ones recalled.
The Tinley Park resident was known as "Ratatouille" around the office at JZ Partners, a downtown Chicago private equity firm where she worked as an executive assistant, because of her love of food.
Moore's eyes "lit up when she talked about the flavors, different cheeses and bread together," said Emmett Mosley, a managing director at the company.
"Everyone loved her," Mosley said.
Moore, 47, died after a crash Thursday morning on 175th Street just east of Brennan Highway in unincorporated Cook County near Tinley Park, said a spokeswoman for the Cook County Sheriff's Office.
The crash occurred at 7 a.m. after Moore lost control of her vehicle and crashed into another, the sheriff's spokeswoman said.
Moore was spotlighted by the SouthtownStar in 2013 after receiving a kidney transplant from a fellow choir member at Family Harvest Church in Tinley Park.
Rosa Covarrubias stepped up to help Moore, who was suffering through dialysis and had asked her fellow parishioners for prayers.
"I would do it again if I had to," Covarrubias said Saturday. "Knowing now how much her life improved, the quality of life that she had even if it was only for two years, I wouldn't hesitate."
In the time since the donation, Moore would make a special point to give Covarrubias a hug every Sunday.
"Her hugs were really special, and it's funny because that's one thing she's remembered by," Covarrubias said. "Everybody who got a hug from her would tell you the same thing."
Even when she was sick, Moore maintained such a positive attitude that many people at work didn't even know she was ill until the operation, Mosley said.
Moore was the oldest of six children and for many years lived with her younger sister, Ericka Moore, who remembered Tonya as a fierce advocate for her family.
"She should've been a lawyer because she would fight tooth and nail if somebody hurt us," Ericka Moore recalled.
Tonya Moore loved to dance, make jokes and "was the life of the party," her sister said. At her 40th birthday party, she danced all night.
"She was a great woman and she loved people, she loved God and she loved family, and she loved her job," Ericka Moore said, adding that Tonya was "one of a kind."
