In Memoriam: Vivian Aplin-Brownlee

Vivian Aplin-Brownlee, 61, a former Washington Post editor who had raised an early alarm about what became the paper’s most notorious scandal, died Oct. 20 of complications from leukemia at her home in Washington.

Ms. Aplin-Brownlee, an experienced newswoman who edited The Post’s District Weekly section, sent a tenacious and ambitious reporter, Janet Cooke, to check out a report about a new type of heroin on Washington’s streets. Cooke returned with notes that eventually became “Jimmy’s World,” a tale of an 8-year-old heroin addict.