A credit was omitted from the photo of Brandy Britton's home that appeared on the front of the May 21 Style section. The photo was taken by staff photographer Mark Gail.
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The House With The Lights On
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Who was the woman next door?
* * *
Brandy Britton is beautiful and beguiling. Vulnerable -- it's those huge eyes of hers. Warm and witty, then evasive and chilly. Sexy. Unforgettable.
It's been 20 years, but Sheila Cordray can vividly recall her star student at Oregon State University.
"What's Brandy up to these days?" the retired sociology professor cries into the phone. "I haven't talked to her in years!"
"She started out," Cordray continues, "as one of the brightest students I've ever had. I taught for 21 years. Brandy was, at least, the top 2 or 3 student I ever had."
In the fall of 1986, Britton tried to get into Cordray's upper-level sociology class, Methods of Social Research. The teacher refused. She never let students add her class late, and, anyway, Britton "was obviously pregnant -- about eight months pregnant." No way could she keep up.
But Britton was "absolutely determined," Cordray says. "It was her second child, and she knew what she was getting into, and she had lots of help at home." Nineteen years later, Cordray still recalls the details: "She had the baby on a [Friday] afternoon and she was back in class Monday morning."
She earned an A. She was 23.
"She was very mature for her age," Cordray says, "and brilliant. Really brilliant."
* * *
Her mother is on the phone. Victoria Britton doesn't speak much to her daughter, and when she hears of the police raid on Brandy's house, she asks the reporter one question: Was her granddaughter at home?
