Jill Marie Rooks' Obituary
Jill was born Feb 7th,1965 to Richard and Audrey Sterner who had met in musical theater. Richard had been a tenor in the Detroit Metropolitan opera.
Jill performed in a lot of her father‘s plays as a young child and teenager playing many leading roles. She played Maria in Westside Story, among others which she loved telling others about.
Jill travelled a lot as a child with her family on summer car trips. She made it to 49 of the 50 states-all but Alaska.
Jill attended University of Hartford-Hartt School of Music and University of Connecticut and received her bachelor's degree in music education.
Jill was known as the wedding singer in a band that traveled up and down the East Coast performing in weddings and many other venues,, singing the hits back in the 80s and 90s. She had a wonderful voice as those who heard her sing can testify.
Jill took a job in the mid 90s at a call center in Windsor Locks, near where she lived because she needed insurance. It was during this time that she became friends with Jon Rooks. Jon was part of a nationwide team that would call into the call center to close out service calls and they spoke several times and became good friends. Jill ended up becoming part of a team that was rolling out an Oracle implementation for the company and moved away from the call center to be an analyst for the company.
In 1998 Jill came out to San Diego to attend an Oracle convention and this is when Jon and Jill first met in person. They maintained a friendship until she came out to another convention in 1999. Jon introduced Jill to his children, Brett and Kelly and they all hit it off immediately. Jon ended up traveling back to Connecticut to get the tour of New England from Jill. Jill would love telling the story that she took him to Cape Cod for lobster, Fenway Park, the baseball Hall of Fame, and an Earth, Wind and Fire concert and he fell in love with her at that point.
Jon and Jill were married in September 2000. Jill moved out to San Diego immediately after this and she began a job as an Oracle consultant. She would fly to different sites around the country doing Oracle implementations, including a stint in Louisville where she had long-term housing at a Marriott there. She would fly out on Monday morning and fly back on Friday afternoon.
This continued for 2-3 years until she realized that she wanted to work closer to home and be around her new family during the week not just on the weekends.
Jill accepted a position at a pool manufacturing company in Vista named Polaris pool systems. This began her storied 21 year career at Polaris/Zodiac/Fluidra where she rose to the position of Vice President of customer experience, which is the title she held until her passing.
Jill touched many lives in her lifetime and was always a beacon of light to others regardless of which stage of life she was in.
All those who knew her will never forget her, only cherish her memory.
In lieu of flowers please send donations to American Cancer Society.
A Celebration of Life will take place on November 20, 2025, at 1pm at the Church of Rancho Bernardo, 11740 Bernardo Plaza Ct, San Diego 92128
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