Elizabeth Beecher, author and long-time California resident, died Saturday at St. Joseph Hospital in Burbank after a brief illness. She was 75. Miss Beecher was born on Feb. 19, 1898, in Bridgeport, Conn., to Charles Pelton and Margaret (Snowden) Hutchins but used her middle name as her professional name. She was a descendant of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin." She attended Kingston (NY) Academy and graduated in 1920 from Syracuse University with majors in English and history. She worked as a byline news reporter and feature writer for the Syracuse Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, and the New York American during the 1920s. During this period, she covered such stories as the arrival of the Japanese Crown Prince (later Emperor Hirohito) on the occasion of the first visit by a member of the royal family to the U.S, the d e a t h of movie idol Rudolph Valentino, and numerous other stories during the Prohibition era. It was during this time she met and knew many of the notorious gangland figures of the New York under world such as "Legs" Diamond, "Dutch" Schultz, Waxey Gordon and Owney Madden. In covering stories during Prohibition she was twice shot at by rum runners, threatened by Mafia hoodlums, and saved a 13-year-old boy from the electric chair (later winning the Pall Mall radio and television big story award for this story) and being instrumental in New York state adopting the juvenile crime law it has today. In 1937, Miss Beecher moved to Hollywood and began writing as a freelance writer, a career she was to pursue for the next 36 years. She wrote upwards of 24 original screenplays for various independent western film producers and also wrote for Universal, Republic and Columbia Pictures. Her television credits include more than 30 teleplays for Lassie, Family Films, and Autry Productions, as well as the series, "Colt 45." In radio she wrote the Gene Autry Show for some time, as well as other radio shows. Still later, she moved into writing comic books and children's books. Among her many credits were adaptations for Walt Disney of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Tonka. She produced 7 Little Golden Books, 4 Big Golden Books and 2 Sandpiper Books -- all for Simon & Schuster. A book about Revolutionary War days, Ranger of '76, was published by Houghton Mifflin. Miss Beecher also produced a cookbook of early American family recipes in collaboration with her sister, Dorothy, called Mother had a Way With Food, published by Pacifica House in 1968. Her Little Golden Book, The Bar-Twenty Cowboy, was selected by the British Museum for inclusion in its Children's Library. In addition, she edited, rewrote or "ghosted" more than 100 manuscripts dealing with every conceivable subject working in many mediums -- novels , articles, teleplays, screenplays, and short stories. In later years, she was associated with a writing consulting firm, giving budding writers the benefit of her expertise in the many areas in which she was proficient. She was active in this field until within two weeks of her death. Miss Beecher was a member of the Authors Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America West. She is survived by her son, Guy Snowden Miller of Reseda, a professor at Pierce College; a sister, Mrs. Dorothy Shidler of North HolIywood, and two grandchildren, Kerry Beecher Miller and Gene Snowden Miller. There will be no services as cremation was followed by interment at Westwood Memorial Park.

Information from: The Kingston [NY] Daily Freeman, 9 September 1968 and The Van Nuys [CA] News. 8 March 1973.