Eddie Z's Swan Song

This week's print Cold Cream mixes theater with politics, but I omitted one of the most poignant moments that paired them. It happened at the annual Omaha Press Club show in the days when it was held at Peony Park.
When he was Mayor of Omaha and later a U.S. Senator from Nebraska, Ed Zorinsky was never afraid to have fun with the press. He supplied out-takes at news conferences by making off-the-wall remarks that he trusted the TV crews not to air on the evening news.
And he gamely sang in skits for the Press Club fundraisers. Gamely because Zorinsky didn't sing well at all.
Put it this way: if he had attempted "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" for the seventh inning break at a Chicago Cubs game, it might have ranked as the third worst effort, surpassed only by the vocal struggles of Coach Mike Ditka and slurring Ozzie Osborne.
On the final night of his life, Sen. Zorinsky and his wife Cece were in the Peony ballroom audience while two other game celebrities, Warren Buffett and Mrs. B, the legendary Rose Blumkin of the Mart, provided the entertainment.
Then the Senator suffered a heart attack. As the rescue squad aided him on the ballroom floor, the band played on and the show went on, but it was the swan song for Eddie Z, with Cece at his side. His death was more drama than anyone predicted for the Press Club Ball.
For young readers who don't remember the man, Sen. Zorinsky, like Sen. Ben Nelson, was regularly expected to switch over to the Republican Party but remained a Democrat who often voted with Republicans. Gov. Kay Orr appointed Republican Dave Karnes to succeed him, and Sen. Karnes was defeated by a Democrat named Bob Kerrey.
--Warren Francke