* Max Beck Skelton, 76, who covered...

* Max Beck Skelton, 76, who covered everything from disasters to space flights in 35 years with the Associated Press, died Saturday. He set up the AP operation at NASA's Johnson Space Center, covering the Gemini, Apollo and shuttle projects. Mr. Skelton joined the AP in Dallas in 1946. In 1947, he covered the tanker explosion in Texas City that killed some 500 people. Later that year he was named Houston correspondent. Mr. Skelton recorded the rise of the city's oil industry and covered the introduction of the city's major league sports teams. He began his journalism career at age 14 at the Daily Courier-Gazette in his hometown of McKinney. He worked at the Denison Herald and the San Antonio Light before joining the Army during World War II. He retired from the AP in 1982.