Jill Leslie Deeney

Jill L. Deeney, age 58, a resident of Center City Philadelphia passed away on July 8, 2026, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania with loving family present. Jill was the beloved youngest daughter of the late Edward J. and Janice L. (nee Kiefer) Deeney of Philadelphia. Jill is survived by her uncle, Joseph Deeney, who she loved dearly.

Jill is also survived by her loving sisters, Janice Marzario (John), Sue Thurman (Mike), and Sandy Haslett (Jim) and was a beloved Aunt to many nieces and nephews, as well as a great niece. Her nieces and nephews as well as many of their friends referred to Jill as “AJ” and she in return referred to all of them as “her Kids.”

Jill fought a heroic and hard fight against a very aggressive form of sarcoma diagnosed only thirty-five days before her death which continued to metastasize to her lungs, liver, and heart at a rapid rate despite recent intensive in-patient chemo treatments. Jill was an exceptional person on every level ---her best attribute was that she was warm, loving and kind to absolutely everyone she encountered. Her warm personality filled and uplifted every room she entered or conference she joined. She was selfless and never said no to a request for help from anyone and was a tremendously smart and talented paralegal. Jill amazingly befriended and cared about everyone she encountered in her life both inside and outside of work. She embraced people from every walk of life and had an uncanny ability to develop a rapport with them including without exception all the security guards, maintenance workers, cleaning personnel, coffee shop workers, and shopkeepers that she encountered on her daily walk to work. To accompany Jill on her walk to work at Liberty Place in Philadelphia made you feel like you were with the Mayor of the City because of all the greetings and well wishes she would both extend and receive along the way. An example of Jill’s warm and loving spirit is that on the day she was told she likely only had a day to live; she insisted on giving out small gifts of special Cape May peanut butter which she had purchased for the seven nurses who had cared for her. On that same day, Jill maintaining her ever present love and concern for others over herself spent the day calling her closest friends and relatives from the hospital until her voice gave out with an apology that she was unable to beat the Sarcoma and giving them reassurance that that they would be okay. Another example of her warm and giving spirit was that every year Jill worked tirelessly to help coordinate putting on a Project Magis reception event for Catholic Charities to assist various needy groups in the Philadelphia region. Jill also often gave of her time and finances in assisting families in need at The Ronald McDonald House at Children’s Hospital and assisting the food indigent by volunteering at the Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance (MANNA). She also for many years purchased and contributed items for care packages to be sent to U.S. military serving overseas.

Jill’s greatest joy was the time she got to spend with her close-knit and loving family. Jill in keeping with her warm and caring heart cared for her ailing father and then for her aging mother. Her dedication to caring for her parents was unwavering and lasted many years until her mother’s death. She relished the family get-togethers at Sandy’s home and Sue’s home for all the major holidays and life events. She also enjoyed spending weekends in Cape May where the family would gather at Sue and Mikes Summer home. Jill had a reputation in the family for her specially curated and very generous gift giving at Christmas. She would start planning everyone’s Christmas gifts in January of each year and throughout the year would purchase many “perfect gifts.” Each year her brother-in-law, Mike Thurman, would be summoned by Jill to bring his large truck to Center City to haul AJ’s load of gifts. Jill cherished this ritual in part because she and Mike would make an obligatory stop at the Sansom Street Oyster house to pick-up the oysters for Christmas dinner which were never ready and resulted in a seat at the bar being taken for a Christmas Old Fashioned and good conversation with Mike while waiting for their order to be completed. She also relished in seeing the reaction of those who received her gifts and knowing that she indeed did find the “perfect gift” for them. Her gift giving was legendary even outside of her family, she would regularly buy gifts for those she encountered on her daily travels as well as their young children.

Jill was very invested in the lives of “her Kids.” She followed all their extracurricular activities and took great pride in all of their accomplishments .She would give regular updates to her colleagues and friends on the latest and greatest happenings with “her Kids” including reports on their travels, restaurants recommended , food experiments, work accomplishments , graduations and recently births of children. She was very protective of” her Kids” and often would prepay for Uber rides to ensure that they arrived safely home from a concert, sporting event or other venue. She often would open up her Center City condo to “her Kids” as a safe home base to allow them to enjoy the various celebratory parades for championship sports teams in Philadelphia .Jill was an avid and well informed Philadelphia sports fan. Her first love was the Philadelphia Flyers and see attended many a hockey game traveling throughout the country. She was always buying small gifts for “her Kids” and sending them birthday cards and emails to let them know she was thinking of them. Jill greatly enjoyed traveling to Ireland, Italy, and other cities throughout the United States ---she was always exchanging pictures and emails with “her Kids” about their respective travel and culinary adventures. Most recently AJ was excited to have become a Great Aunt (now “GAJ”) with the birth during her hospitalization of Baby Sophie .One of AJs stated goals was to be able to get well enough to leave the hospital to see in person and hold Baby Sophie, which unfortunately was not able to be attained .

Jill earned her High School Diploma with honors from Mastbaum High School in Philadelphia and almost immediately embarked on her thirty-six-year career as a law firm paralegal. Initially, Jill worked as a paralegal with John T. Carroll III, Esquire at Wessel & Carpel, a small bankruptcy boutique firm in Center City. Jill accompanied John on career moves to a medium size law firm, Swartz Campbell & Detweiler, and eventually to the law firm of Cozen O’Connor, one of the 100 largest law firms in the United States where Jill worked until the time of her death. Jill was John’s “wingman” over thirty-six years in building his bankruptcy practice and ultimately helping him manage as Co-Chair the Bankruptcy Insolvency & Restructuring Group at Cozen O’Connor. Jill and John were sometimes referred to as “Jack & Jill” because where one appeared “the other was soon to follow.” The team was joined along their professional journey by a legal practice assistant, Patricia Giordano, who became a devoted friend of Jill’s working together for thirty years to not only support the practice but also one another in trials and tribulations of their respective personal lives. John has always credited Jill’s exceptional intellect, practical skills, and common sense as the reason for his success in the stressful and fast-paced practice of bankruptcy law. Jill has been responsible for 26 years in mentoring young lawyers (and some old lawyers too) as well as support staff on bankruptcy practice---many of whom still called her for help even after leaving Cozen O’Connor. On occasion Jill was known to modify John’s drafted language and upon being confronted with the change Jill would indicate that her version was better---she was always right, her version was better.

Outside of the bankruptcy group at Cozen O’Connor, she was equally selfless in her willingness to assist members of other practice areas throughout Cozen O’Connor and even in other firms regardless of how very busy she was on her own matters. She acted as a de facto bankruptcy ombudsman to answer bankruptcy related questions (and not so related questions) for other members of her firm ranging from litigation, real estate, and firm finance issues. As a longtime member of the Cozen O’Connor’s Technology Committee, she was very technologically proficient and was always providing practical insights to facilitate smooth transitioning of new technology programs. A most recent example is the federal court systems implementation of a multi-factor authentication system for court filings---Jill out of the goodness of her heart assisted a tremendous number of lawyers and their LPAs in setting up the convoluted system to enable them to do filings. Jill loved her gadgets and could set-up and/or trouble-shoot any computer or TV cable box system as well as any trained technician. She laughingly attributed this skillset to her father training her on the use of all sorts of tools because “he wanted a son.”

Jill was a warm, loving, caring, exceptionally smart, loyal, disciplined and independent woman who exuded selflessness and kindness to all she encountered on this earth. She is missed terribly by all her family, friends, and colleagues who take comfort that she is no longer suffering from her last illness. The world is a lesser place without Jill Deeney and heaven has been enhanced. Jill will live on forever in the hearts and memories of those many people who loved her. God bless her.

A Celebration of Life service for Jill is in the process of being scheduled, and this website will be updated to provide the details once scheduling is finalized. In lieu of flowers the family requests that gifts in memory of Jill be made to the Sarcoma Foundation of America (sarcomaus.donorsupport)or to the Ronald McDonald House at Philadelphia Children’s Hospital (ronaldmcdonaldhousephilly.org).