Lindsay Brown — lawyer, teacher and community leader

When Lindsay Brown turned 50 last year, her husband surprised her with a pair of plane tickets to Paris. They spent a week eating at five-star restaurants, going to the opera and enjoying other luxuries.

"It was the splurge of all splurges," said Ms. Brown's husband, David Zapolsky.

He's glad they didn't postpone the vacation.

Ms. Brown died Aug. 31 in her home from an aggressive cancer that was diagnosed early this summer, Zapolsky said.

"She really didn't have any regrets," Zapolsky said. Though the cancer robbed her of additional years of life, he said, "she did a lot with the 50 she had."

Oh, what a life: In her teens, Ms. Brown sailed around the world. As an adult, she handled appeals in the New York prosecutor's office, and later in Seattle developed a tutoring practice for children who struggled with reading. In her spare time, she could be found tending to her garden and serving on the boards of the Magnolia Community Club and Childhaven.

Ms. Brown grew up in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, one of three children.

At age 14, Ms. Brown embarked on a round-the-world sailing trip with her grandparents, mother and a cousin on a 44-foot yacht. They set out from Vancouver, B.C., and spent the next three years traveling, a few weeks at sea, a few weeks or months in port. She graduated from high school via correspondence courses.

"It was a defining experience for her," Zapolsky said, giving the young woman survival skills and confidence.

She finished her voyage in Hawaii and later met a young engineer, Steven Lablo, and the couple moved to Seattle. They got engaged and bought a three-bedroom bungalow in the Ravenna neighborhood. Lablo was in Alaska on a surveying trip when Ms. Brown received word he had died in a hiking accident.

Ms. Brown attended the University of Washington and worked as a legal secretary. She was admitted to law school at the University of California, Berkeley. There, she met Zapolsky, and upon graduating, the pair moved to Brooklyn, New York, to work for the district attorney's office — he in the sex-crimes unit, she in the appeals unit.

One Friday afternoon, just minutes after a sentencing hearing was postponed, they were married by a judge friend, "with the appeals bureau on one side and the sex-crimes bureau on the other," Zapolsky recalled.

In 1994 they returned to Seattle. They had a son, Ian, and Ms. Brown volunteered at elementary schools in the Magnolia neighborhood. There she discovered a passion for helping kids with dyslexia and immersed herself in techniques for teaching them how to read.

Eventually, she was in such demand that she started a tutoring practice at her house.

"You can change someone's whole life if you get them early enough and show them some techniques that are proven to work," Zapolsky said.

Beyond being an active mom in the PTA and a parents group supporting the jazz bands at Washington Middle School and Garfield High School, Ms. Brown served as a community leader.

As president of the Magnolia Community Club, Ms. Brown helped represent the community in negotiations over land use in Discovery Park, including the Daybreak Star Center and the Capehart barracks.

In addition to her husband, Ms. Brown is survived by her 15-year-old son and her brothers, Neil and Ian Brown. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Childhaven (www.childhaven.org), which serves abused and neglected children.

In accordance with Ms. Brown's instructions, Zapolsky isn't holding a funeral. Instead, "she wanted a well-catered party."

Sanjay Bhatt: 206-464-3103 or sbhatt@seattletimes.com