Vivian Aplin-Brownlee, 61; editor questioned article about young heroin addict

Vivian Aplin-Brownlee, 61, a former Washington Post editor who raised an early alarm concerning a Pulitzer Prize-winning story about an 8-year-old heroin addict who turned out not to exist, died Oct. 20 of complications from leukemia at her Washington home, said her husband, Dennis Brownlee.

Aplin-Brownlee had sent an 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 gripping tale of a boy addicted to heroin.

Out of town on vacation while the story developed, Aplin-Brownlee returned to find it on the front page. She tried several times to alert higher-level editors that the story didn’t sound right and that Cooke was not capable of doing the reporting she said she had done. But other editors dismissed her concerns, according to the Post.

The story won the Pulitzer for feature writing in 1981, but the paper returned the award and fired Cooke after she admitted her deception. The incident is considered a landmark case in journalism ethics.

Aplin-Brownlee was born in Haines City, Fla., grew up in Steubenville, Ohio, and graduated from Ohio University.

She was among the first group of black women to be hired and promoted in major newsrooms. She was the first black assignment editor on the Post’s national desk and the first black female reporter at the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

In Cleveland, she later joined the editorial section, another first for a black woman.