Jim Klobuchar, Minnesota newspaperman and senatorâs father, dies at 93 By Katharine Q. Seelye New York Times,Updated May 19, 2021, 1:47 p.m. Email to a Friend Jim Klobuchar was a renowned sports writer and general-interest columnist in Minnesota for decades. Straight out of central casting, he was celebrated for his derring-do: He once held a piece of chalk between his lips while a sharpshooter took aim at it. He was a finalist for NASAâs initiative to send a journalist into space, until the Challenger explosion in 1986 ended the program. He scaled the Matterhorn eight times and Kilimanjaro five. And he could make readers weep, as when he wrote about a 5-year-old girl with a brain tumor who loved to ride the rails: âShe was cradled in her motherâs lap on the observation car of the Milwaukee Roadâs Hiawatha, a tidy young lady. A dying little girl, taking her last train ride.â