Courtney, a longtime history professor at Washington’s Lower Columbia College, first appeared on Jeopardy! in 2021, winning seven straight games and earning a total of $118,558, alongside the $2,000 she won for placing second in her eighth game, per the fan database J! Archive.
She returned to the popular game show the next year for the 2022 Tournament of Champions, where she placed third in her quarterfinals match, winning a cash prize of $5,000, according to Jeopardy!
Earlier this year, Courtney was diagnosed with brain cancer, which Maya announced in February.
“My mom has a brain tumor,” she shared on the CaringBridge page at the time. “Around the second week of January this year, my mom was experiencing some numbness and weakness in the left side of her face.”
The following month, Maya shared a heartbreaking update, writing that her mom was not “responding to radiation or chemo in the way we hoped.”
As Maya noted, Courtney decided to make “the brave, clear-eyed decision to stop treatment and transition to hospice,” with her daughter emphasizing that her family was standing “behind her” following her choice.
