BEALE, Betty 1911-2006
(Elizabeth Virginia Beale)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born November 6, 1911, in Washington, DC; died of bladder cancer, June 7, 2006, in Washington, DC. Journalist and author. Beale was best known as the society columnist for the Washington Evening Star. The daughter of a well-to-do Washington family that included her banker father and author uncle, the independent-minded Beale graduated from Smith College and learned typing and shorthand at the Junior League in order to find a job and support herself. She had a quick start in 1937, when she was hired to write the "Top Hats and Tiaras" column for the Washington Post. Ill health forced her to leave three years later, but she credited a conversion to Christian Science for her eventual recovery. Thus, in 1945 she joined the staff at the Star, where she would remain until that newspaper closed its doors in 1981. At first penning breezy society columns that discussed entertaining issues of little importance, Beale became bored with this and convinced her editor to let her write about the political issues people were talking about at the elegant affairs she attended. By the 1950s, she was given assignments to cover political conventions, and thus her column became decidedly meatier. Over the years she met U.S. presidents and other heads of state—and became close friends to Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie—as well as artists, captains of industry, and other prominent figures. Although she included politics in her columns, her main focus was still on the customs and manners of the powerful and wealthy as they socialized; she defended their right to do so as a way of alleviating stress caused by their high-pressure positions. After she retired in 1981, she still wrote occasionally for the North American Syndicate until 1989, but found the old subject of high society doings less intriguing as social graces seemed to wane and the glamour of presidential dinners and parties faded. She wrote about her life and experiences as a society columnist in Power at Play: A Memoir of Parties, Politicians, and the Presidents in My Bedroom (1993).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Beale, Betty, Power at Play: A Memoir of Parties, Politicians, and the Presidents in My Bedroom, Regnery Gateway (Washington, DC), 1993.

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, June 10, 2006, p. B15.

Washington Post, June 8, 2006, p. B6.