Wheeling native was one of area's first to receive liver transplant

One of the first Chicago-area recipients of a liver transplant has died. Jill Terreberry, a Wheeling native and longtime Schaumburg resident, lived more than 20 years after undergoing her historic transplant.

Dr. Thomas Starzl, who had pioneered the procedure in 1963 and is generally recognized as the father of organ transplantation, performed the surgery in 1985 at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

"Back in 1985, (receiving a liver transplant) was pretty unusual," says her sister, Judy Mullen of Machesney Park, Ill. "She had to travel to Pittsburgh because that's the only place it was being done. Dr. Starzl was the only surgeon doing it."

Her case was profiled in the Daily Herald, as well as on several Chicago area television stations.

Ms. Terreberry's body, however, finally gave out Nov. 26 after her latest transplant of a new liver and kidney, performed Nov. 24 at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The Elgin resident was 54.

Family and friends recalled the 1972 Wheeling High School graduate as a vivacious high school student who performed with the drill team and was elected by the student body to be one of the "calendar girls" for the school's annual fundraiser.

At age 17, however, her health began to deteriorate. It would be another 10 years, though, before doctors would diagnose Ms. Terreberry with chronic active hepatitis. By then, the disease had ravaged her liver and cause damage serious enough to warrant a transplant.

Ms. Terreberry waited on the transplant list for more than two years before finally receiving her new liver in 1985 at the age of 30.

"She accepted her illness with such amazing grace," Mullen adds. "She never complained, never asked, 'Why me?'"

Family members describe the transplant as all that they could have hoped for, giving her more than 20 more healthy years.

During those years, she worked full time with Motorola, 3M, and BP, before most recently working as a property manager with Foster Premiere in Buffalo Grove.

She also had time to pursue her love of gardening, travel, and entertaining family and friends.

When she could, Ms. Terreberry helped to promote organ donations, both at the Starzl Transplantation Institute in Pittsburgh, and in Illinois, including one event where she posed with Gov. Jim Edgar and Secretary of State Jesse White.

As a long-term survivor, she was a good ambassador for the positive outcomes made possible by transplantation, family members said.

Besides her sister, Ms. Terreberry is survived by her parents, Robert and Bette Terreberry of Schaumburg, a brother Robert of Naperville, and another sister, Joan Bober of West Dundee.

Services have been held.