By: Former society columnist Betty Beale, whose writing graced the pages of the Washington Star for four decades, has died at 94.
Beale's brother, the late William L. Beale Jr., was chief of The Associated Press Washington bureau for 20 years. He died in 2002.
Betty Beale died Wednesday at a hospice in Washington, according to her stepson George Graeber.
Beale covered the official dinners and receptions of eight presidents starting with Harry S. Truman.
In addition to her column, which appeared four times a week in the Washington Star, she had a Sunday syndicated column that was carried in as many as 90 newspapers across the country. She said that keeping her readers informed meant attending five to ten parties a week.
The Star went out of business in 1981.
Beale was the daughter of a Washington banking executive, the granddaughter of Tennessee Congressman T.W. Sims, and her uncle, Louis Brownlow, ran the city of Washington during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson.
Her brother had a 40-year career with AP, becoming the news service's Washington bureau chief in 1949 and holding the post until his retirement in 1969.
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