In Memoriam: Neil MacNeil

Neil MacNeil, who covered Congress for Time magazine through seven presidential administrations and was among television’s first Congressional correspondents, died Saturday in Bethesda, Md., where he made his home. He was 85. The cause was lung cancer, said his daughter Tara MacNeil Veitch. Mr. MacNeil began his journalistic career at The New York Times, where his father, also named Neil MacNeil, was an assistant night managing editor. He went to Washington in 1949 to report on Congress for the United Press, joined Time in 1958 and stayed until retirement in 1987.