Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) offered a tribute to her father, Jim Klobuchar, who died Wednesday at the age of 93.
In a statement posted to Twitter, Amy Klobuchar reflected on her father’s life as a journalist, his struggles with addiction and living the final years of life with Alzheimer’s.
“Even to the end, as he lived the final chapter of his life with Alzheimer’s, he was still singing songs and telling incredible stories to my sister Meagan and me,” Klobuchar said. “He loved our state. He loved journalism. He loved sports and adventure. And we loved him.”
A graduate of the University of Minnesota, where he later taught, Jim Klobuchar worked as a reporter in Bismarck, N.D., and for The Associated Press in Minnesota. He began working in 1961 for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, where his career would last more than three decades.
At the Star Tribune, he covered the Minnesota Vikings’ first five seasons before he was given free rein to write whatever he wanted when he took a job as a general columnist in 1965.
The Star Tribune hailed Jim Klobuchar in an obituary, calling him “an intrepid son of the Iron Range who with grace and puckish wit chronicled the lives of ordinary and fabled Minnesotans as a longtime columnist for the Star Tribune.”
But he also faced a public battle with alcoholism.
“His own struggles with alcoholism were very pubic and he helped others by sharing those stories, as well as how his faith and family and friends helped him on his lifelong journey to redemption and sobriety,” Amy Klobuchar acknowledged.
Amy Klobuchar addressed her father’s alcoholism and recovery in her memoir, “The Senator Next Door: A Memoir from the Heartland,” as well as in a 2010 interview with Elle magazine.
Jim Klobuchar’s alcoholism was thrust into the national spotlight in 2018 when Amy Klobuchar had a tense exchange with Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh after she asked him if he had ever consumed so much alcohol that he blacked out.
“When you have a parent that’s an alcoholic, you’re pretty careful about drinking,” Amy Klobuchar said at the time.
Amy Klobuchar said a public celebration of her father’s life will be announced at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, gifts in honor of her father can be directed to the University of Minnesota’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where a scholarship will be established in his name.