new york | David Halberstam, whose writings probed American life from its failures in war and civil rights to its sports glories, was mourned this week by some of the best and brightest of his generation.

About 1,000 people turned out at a memorial service Tuesday, June 12 for the 73-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who was killed April 23 in a car crash in Menlo Park when the vehicle he was a passenger in was hit by another vehicle.

Singer-songwriter Paul Simon sang “Mrs. Robinson,” accompanying himself on guitar, from the altar of Riverside Church. Peter Yarrow, from the famed folk trio “Peter, Paul & Mary” and who lived in the same building as Halberstam, sang “Sweet Survivor.”

Writer Gay Talese and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin also attended. — ap