James Thomas Sweeney was born May 11, 1952. He fell asleep in death on March 5, 2025, at the young age of 72. Jimmy Died from injuries he received from Manhattan Box 5-5-8087 during the rescue and recovery efforts on 9/11/2001.

Jimmy was appointed to the FDNY on September 5, 1981, and retired on May 11, 2002. He was a firefighter in Ladder 120, Ladder 84, and Ladder 127 and retired as an officer from Ladder 151. Jimmy loved being a firefighter.

The beloved son of Mary and Michael Sweeney, Jimmy was the second of four children that included his brother George (deceased), his brother Michael, and his sister Barbara. He is survived by Denise, his wife of 45 years, nephews and nieces, and a sister-in-law and brother-in-law.

Jimmy was born in New York and grew up in the Frederick Douglass Projects on Columbus Avenue on the outskirts of Harlem. Jimmy had fond memories of growing up there, surrounded by extended family. The family moved to Queens Village in the early 1960s, and Jimmy attended PS34 until there was room at St. Pascal’s.

He met Denise when she was a freshman at St. Pascal’s and he was a senior. Their first date was on Ladies Day at Shea Stadium. From that day on, they were together. Jimmy and Denise were married on August 25, 1979. Their first apartment was in Jamaica, Queens. He loved raising and training his dogs, Holly, Dolly, Lucy, Spike, Kelly, Chase, and Chance. Besides playing basketball as a younger man, Jimmy played the guitar, piano, tennis, went jogging, and played pickleball.

At 18, Jimmy and he and his cousin John became Sandhogs—urban miners and underground construction workers. Jimmy was the youngest foreman in the tunnels, a job that he and his cousin excelled at, being young. Several years later he joined the FDNY when he was laid off from the Sandhogs. He excelled in both careers.

Jimmy became interested in studying the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses in the early part of the 1990s and was baptized as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses on October 24, 1992. He spent a lot of his time preaching and teaching, something he loved to do with Denise by his side.

Jimmy would want you to know that, despite life’s challenges and the problems we all face in this world, if you build a relationship with God through Bible truths, then you will have the hope and build the faith that he had. The Jehovah God through his son Christ Jesus will resurrect him, and he will have the opportunity to live again in a world where there will be no more pain, crying, or dying.