Dr. Shah competed on ‘Jeopardy!’ in 2021, as well as during the 2022 Tournament of Champions
Credit: cqshah/Instagram
NEED TO KNOW
- Seven-time Jeopardy! champion Dr. Courtney Shah has died at age 52
She competed on the popular game show in 2021, as well as during the 2022 Tournament of Champions - “I don’t know what you believe about death, but I like to think that she’s at peace now,” Dr. Shah’s daughter, Maya Shaw, wrote in a tribute
Dr. Courtney Shah, a seven-time Jeopardy! champion, has died. She was 52.
Courtney died “in the comfort of her home” on Wednesday, July 22, her daughter, Maya Shaw, announced through a post on the website for the nonprofit CaringBridge.
She had been receiving hospice care at home after she learned in March that treatment for her brain cancer, including radiation and chemotherapy, had not been working.
“I don’t know what you believe about death, but I like to think that she’s at peace now,” Maya wrote in a tribute to her mother. “We loved her in this world, and we loved her out of this world, and we’ll go on loving her.”
“Thank you for your grace in all of this,” the grieving daughter continued. “It hasn’t been easy. It will continue not to be easy. Hug your loved ones.”
Credit: cqshah/Instagram
Courtney competed on Jeopardy! in 2021, when she earned a total of $118,558 across a seven-game winning streak, as well as an additional $2,000 for her second-place finish during her eighth game, according to J! Archive, a fan-run online database for the popular game show.
She also competed in the 2022 Tournament of Champions, where she placed third in her quarterfinal match. She earned a $5,000 consolation prize as a quarterfinalist, per Jeopardy!
In a March update shared on CaringBridge, Maya wrote that her mother’s love of Jeopardy! kept her going amid her cancer diagnosis.
Despite Courtney’s illness not responding to treatment “in the way we hoped,” Maya said her mom was still “watching basketball, rooting for Duke and uh, firing off Jeopardy! answers before anyone else in the room.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Courtney served as a professor at Lower Columbia College in Longview, Wash., for just under 20 years, according to KLOG, a radio station in Kelso.
A memorial will be held in her honor at the college campus’ Rose Center for the Arts from 1 to 3:30 p.m. local time on Monday, Aug. 10, the station said.
Read the full article here
