The Press: Ring's Youngest

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In the New Yorker last week appeared the first report from the German front by its sports and cinema writer turned war correspondent, tall, young (25), quiet-voiced David Lardner. His story was a factual, homey piece about life in liberated Luxembourg. Two days after publication came news that Lardner, leaving conquered Aachen in a jeep, had run into a minefield. He was the 20th U.S. correspondent killed in World War II.

David was the youngest of the four sons of the late great Ringgold Wilmer (Ring) Lardner. Each had carried on in his father's field. John, the eldest, Newsweek's able war correspondent in Africa and Europe, is temporarily writing the New Yorker's cinema reviews. Ringgold Jr. is a Hollywood scenarist (Woman of the Year). James, the third son, went to Spain during the civil war as a New York Herald Tribune reporter, joined the Loyalists' International Brigade, was killed in battle.