The Illinois State Bar Association family is mourning the loss of Dr. Catherine Ann Heinzl Speedie, the wife of continuing legal education director Thomas S. Speedie of Springfield and mother of 4-year-old Graham. Dr. Speedie died April 28 at age 34 of cancer.

A 1992 magna cum laude graduate of St. Louis University who was born in Belleville, Dr. Speedie was a nuclear medical technologist at the university medical center until 1998, when she enrolled in the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.

She received her medical doctorate in 2002 and became a resident in internal medicine and psychiatry at the school. The survivor of a previous bout with breast cancer, she spoke on the subject to local organizations.