Rebecca Ann Denny

1951 - 2021

December 4, 1951 - March 15, 2021 Rebecca Ann Denny, 69, slipped quietly into the great beyond after a valiant four-year battle with endometrial cancer on March 15, 2021 at her home in Los Angeles. Becky was born in Anchorage, Alaska on December 4, 1951, to parents Sidney and Thelma Depner. As the eldest daughter in a career military family, she spent her childhood living all over the United States and abroad, including in Turkey and Japan. Much of her adolescence was spent curled up with detective fiction books like Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew; she carried her love of the genre through adulthood, a rotating stack of mystery novels always present on her nightstand. As a young woman, she earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of South Carolina, and she later began working at Grand Strand General Hospital in Myrtle Beach. She gave birth to her only child, daughter Amanda, in that same hospital on Christmas Day 1979. In 1981, Becky moved to Los Angeles with her family, and she started her thirty-five year nursing career at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. With wide-ranging interests in the medical field, she worked in many departments within the hospital during her tenure, from taking care of patients on the AIDS floor during the 1990's crisis to managing the Epidemiology department for 14 years before her retirement in 2017. Becky was committed to outstanding patient care and was widely regarded as exceptional in her field. She taught and mentored many rising nurses over the years and made lifelong friends who became part of her inner circle. While working full-time and raising a daughter as a single mother, Becky earned her Master of Science in Nursing from the California State University, Dominguez Hills. Becky loved to travel and experience new things. She traversed Europe numerous times throughout her life with friends and family, traveled to tropical locales like Jamaica, The Bahamas, and Costa Rica, and she took Amanda camping every summer at interesting and far-flung places in the U.S. She cared deeply about the people in her life and cherished genuine connection. She jumped at every opportunity to spend time with her beloved grandson, Arthur, to whom she will be his eternal "Mimi." At 66, Becky chose love and married her sweetheart, Deanna.They traveled, laughed and enjoyed the years they had together, a love story curtailed by illness. Becky is survived by her wife, Deanna, daughter Amanda (Jimmy), grandson Arthur, sister Roxanne (Brian), brother Jan (Kathy), niece Jennifer and nephew Erik. We give special thanks to City of Hope hospital and Dr. Daphne Stewart for her collaborative and compassionate care.