Beale, Ex-AP Washington Bureau Chief, Dies

By: (AP) William L. Beale Jr., chief of The Associated Press' Washington bureau for two decades, died Sunday. He was 97.

Beale died of natural causes at a Maryland nursing home.

Beale, whose birthday was Tuesday, began his journalism career in Knoxville, Tenn., before returning to the District of Columbia, his hometown, to work on the old United States Daily.

He joined the AP, the world's largest newsgathering organization, in 1930, where he would stay until retirement four decades later.

Beale covered the Bonus March in 1932 and the famous 100-day session of Congress, during which President Roosevelt began to set up the New Deal. He also covered the 1934 U.S.-Soviet negotiations that led to United States' recognition of the Soviets.

Beale attended 18 national political conventions and directed the AP's coverage of 12. In 1936, he was named news editor in Washington after covering the presidential campaign of Republican Alf Landon.

His service as news editor spanned World War II and Beale personally covered the 1944 war conference in Quebec between Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, as well as the drafting of the United Nations charter in San Francisco in 1945.

In 1949, Beale was promoted to chief of bureau, putting him in charge of a staff of more than 100 in Washington, the AP's largest domestic office. He held the post until retirement some 20 years later in 1969.

Beale continued to live in Washington with his wife, Lucrece, who was an AP reporter in Washington until they wed.

He was a member of the Gridiron Club, a Washington media institution, the National Press Club, and Sigma Delta Chi, the news fraternity.

Survivors include his wife of 61 years, Lucrece Hudgins Beale; a son, David Taverner Beale, of New Hope, Pa.; a daughter, Mary Garven Beale, of Columbia, Md.; two granddaughters and a sister, Betty Beale Graeber, of Washington.