Woman’s death hits
friends at Waianae hard

Betsy Brown, 21, was killed
Sunday in a one-car crash

At Waianae High School, Betsy Brown blossomed.

She helped put two school yearbooks together, spent hours after school for nearly a year planning and researching a project on jazz and the African-American experience, and impressed faculty members with her zest for knowledge.

"Our whole school is dealing with her loss," said Lisa Tsuruda, a 12th-grade English teacher at Waianae. "There was so much promise there."

Brown, 21, died Sunday in a fiery car crash on Moanalua Freeway. Police said she was speeding "excessively" and was not wearing a seat belt.

The accident happened about 10:10 a.m. when the 2003 four-door car Brown was driving struck an impact rail, rolled over and slid into the center lane, where it caught fire.

Brown died of smoke inhalation and burns.

"When you think about Betsy Brown, the first thing that you think about is her smile," said Tsuruda, a longtime friend to the Brown family. "She broke stereotypes. She was very intelligent."

Brown graduated cum laude from Waianae High in 2001 and attended classes until 2003 at Hawaii Pacific University.

Tsuruda said the Browns, who could not be reached at their Waianae home last night, are still trying to piece together what happened before the crash and where Brown had been headed on Sunday.

Just hours before the accident, Tsuruda said, Brown had dropped a group of women off at church. Tsuruda also said the car involved in the crash did not belong to Brown.

"So many lives are affected by one loss," Tsuruda said. "Sometimes you're at a loss for words."

Lorraine Gershun, yearbook teacher at Waianae High, said Brown's death is "definitely hitting a lot of us hard" at the school.

"She was a good writer, and she worked hard to meet her deadlines even if I made her stay after school," Gershun added.

In 2001, Brown, her brother Lonona and another student worked on a research project titled "Jazz: Breaking the Boundaries of Racism." The effort, with Tsuruda as an adviser, won gold in a Hawaii Council on Humanities contest and went on to take a top-10 spot nationally.