After a half century in the funeral service business, Gary Wallin thought he had seen it all.

Two years before Eileen Brown’s passing this fall, she had furnished Wallin with an obituary only to resubmit a revised copy about every six months.

“She was the consummate planner,” said Wallin, owner of Wallin Funeral Home in Oak Harbor.  “That’s just who she was.”

But it wasn’t until shortly after Brown’s passing on Sept. 27 when the scope of Wallin’s statement was truly revealed.

At Brown’s memorial service, Marcus Cushway spoke before a large gathering of friends and family and shared  how his mother had left behind a thick, three-ring binder, detailing how she wanted her personal affairs to be handled. Cushway told the group that as he turned the pages of the binder and got near the end, he found a document he didn’t expect to see but was amusing nonetheless.

It was his obituary.

“I told Marcus, ‘That’s a first,’” Wallin said. “I’ve been doing this 52 years. Never have I seen a mother who left her son’s obituary. When he shared that with the group here, it brought the house down. Everyone was roaring.”

And that, Wallin said, was how Brown would have wanted her service to be.

“She wanted it to be a party,” he said.

Brown died at the age of 73 after a battle with Parkinson’s disease and other health issues.

For more than 30 years, she wrote columns that appeared in Whidbey Island newspapers, starting with the base newspaper at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, the Crosswind, where she became editor in 1985. She later worked for the Whidbey News-Times and Whidbey Weekly.

Through her writing, she shared human-interest stories about people in the community and promoted causes that she believed benefitted Oak Harbor and Whidbey Island.

One of those causes was the creation of a historic center that would showcase the history of the PBY Catalina and other aircraft based at NAS Whidbey.

In 1998, Brown was one of 13 original members who started the PBY Memorial Foundation, which brought the naval air museum to Oak Harbor. She was still on the board of trustees when she died.

“Eileen Brown had a lot to do with nurturing the concept of creating a memorial of some kind for the veterans who flew the PBY and aviators who flew out of NAS Whidbey,” said Wil Shellenberger, the foundation’s president.

Shellenberger said when he first started as president of the foundation three years ago, he met with Brown monthly for advice.

“She was very insightful and I felt one of those rare individuals who really put the community above all else,” Shellenberger said. “She always looked for ways to improve the world around her. I just thought she was a model citizen. I think there is a lot to be learned just from knowing Eileen Brown and how she lived.”

Brown was recognized as NAS Whidbey Island Civilian of the Year in 2001 and received the Meritorious Civilian Service Award when she retired from working for the base newspaper in 2004.

She would continue to write weekly columns about people and causes in the community for another decade.

“Eileen was the perfect reporter because she had so much heart,” said close friend Helen Chatfield-Weeks. “She always did it with kindness and thoughtfulness and that was part of her whole personality. She was one of the kindest ladies I think I’ve ever known.”

“She was so attuned to the community,” Wallin said. “She had her ear to the ground and she just knew everything that was going on. She was such a compassionate person. She befriended anybody. She was always taking care of somebody else, just totally unselfish.”

Even in her weakened condition, Brown stayed involved with the naval air museum as much as she could.

She joined fellow original PBY Memorial Foundation members Win and Donna Stites at the grand opening of the museum’s new location on Pioneer Way in July.

“Eileen was always giving of herself and always had time to talk and was never too busy to help a friend,” Win Stites said. “Eileen was always there, so it is hard to believe she is not with us anymore.”

On Sept. 23, four days before her death, Brown attended the foundation’s monthly luncheon at the Chief Petty Officers Club on Ault Field Road.

“We didn’t know this then, but we know now that she knew the end was near,” Shellenberger said. “She came into that meeting asking how things were going and offering encouragement with absolutely no mention of her health problems. Right up to within a few days of her passing, she was still interested in how the organization was doing and asking how individual people were doing and offering encouragement.

“That spoke volumes of her as a person.”

“She touched the lives of many people representing all different walks of life,” said Helen Bates, a longtime friend. “She’ll be sorely missed by many.”