Nebraska Sen. Zorinsky Dies; Heart Attack Likely

OMAHA — Nebraska’s senior senator, Democrat Edward Zorinsky, died unexpectedly Friday night, apparently of a heart attack, a short time after collapsing at a dinner, a longtime friend said.

Zorinsky, 58, was taken by ambulance to Methodist Hospital from the Omaha Press Club Ball about 10:45 p.m. and died a short time later, said state Sen. Bernice Labedz, a close friend. Hospital officials confirmed the death.

The senator reportedly became ill after singing a jazz tune at the annual show.

Zorinsky had been receiving treatment for heart disease since 1982 and was hospitalized in 1985 after suffering chest pains.

The former mayor of Omaha, Zorinsky was known as a cost-conscious senator and a maverick who once had to be instructed not to reuse postage stamps.

Zorinsky switched parties to run for the Senate as a Democrat in 1976 and won decisively. He was reelected in 1982 and carried all but a handful of counties in his state.

He briefly considered a campaign for the governorship in 1985 but decided against it.

“It would be unconscionable for me to leave the U.S. Senate and abandon and throw away that investment that the people of Nebraska have made in me as their United States senator,” he said at the time.

Zorinsky worked actively in the Senate to overhaul the federal system of issuing crop loans to wheat and corn farmers and to make U.S. farm products competitive overseas.

Before becoming mayor, he had been a tobacco and candy wholesaler, and a member of the Omaha Public Power District board and the State Judicial Qualifications Commission.