ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – Tony Hillerman’s fans knew him as a compelling mystery writer who gave readers around the world a glimpse into the land and culture of the Navajo.

At his funeral Friday, he was remembered as a humble, generous man devoted to his family and his faith.

“There were no airs, no pretensions. He was just Tony,” the Rev. Bennett Voorhies told hundreds of mourners at a Mass at Our Lady of the Annunciation Roman Catholic church.

Hillerman died Sunday at 83 of pulmonary failure.

A private burial was scheduled Saturday at Santa Fe National Cemetery.

He was the acclaimed author of more than 30 books, including 18 in the Navajo series featuring tribal officers on the vast reservation in the Four Corners area.

A natural storyteller, he worked as a reporter and editor in Texas and Oklahoma.

He was executive editor of The New Mexican in Santa Fe, and taught journalism and chaired the journalism department at the University of New Mexico.

The Hillerman family – he is survived by his wife of 60 years, Marie, and six children – met with guests after the funeral at UNM’s student union building.

“He had a facility for writing which was uniquely Tony’s,” said Leonard Napolitano, the former head of the medical school at UNM and a friend for decades. “He was a person from Oklahoma who could put things in words we could all understand.”

He also was a good poker player, said Dick Pfaff, a UNM retiree who ran student publications and played regularly with Hillerman for three decades.

“He had an incredibly good mind,” Pfaff said.

Hillerman was born to farmers in tiny Sacred Heart, Okla., and educated at a nearby Roman Catholic school for Indian girls.

His nephew, Frank Chambers, a deacon in the church, described Hillerman as “filled with faith.”

“We had tremendous discussions, especially in the areas of faith and politics and social justice,” said Chambers, of Raymond, Maine.

A longtime friend, the Rt. Rev. Lawrence Stasyszen, said Hillerman was warm, welcoming and always interested in what others had to say.

“He was not pretentious in any way. … He didn’t wear his success on his sleeve,” said Stasyszen, abbot at St. Gregory’s Abbey, a Benedictine abbey in Shawnee, Okla.

“He was just a class act.”

AP-ES-11-01-08 0635EDT