Betty Beale, 94; Wrote of High Society in the Nation’s Capital

Betty Beale, 94, a society writer for four decades whose syndicated column gave readers a close-up, largely sympathetic nibble of Washington’s upper crust, died Wednesday of bladder cancer at a Washington, D.C., hospice.

Beale was born into a prominent Washington family and wrote for the old Washington Star, once the city’s dominant newspaper. From the Truman to the Reagan administrations, she attended an estimated 15,000 parties, chronicling what she called “the manners, customs and personalities of our times.”

At its peak of popularity in the mid-1960s, her column ran in about 90 newspapers, including The Times.

She had presidents to her home, dined with authors and statesmen and chatted up emperors. She wrote of her “special bond” with Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie: “The love we shared for Chihuahuas.”