MINNEAPOLIS — Jim Klobuchar, a longtime Minnesota newspaper reporter and columnist and the father of U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, has died after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 93.

Klobuchar died Wednesday at the Emerald Crest care facility in Burnsville, a Twin Cities suburb, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota senator, said that throughout his life her father was “a champion of those on the outside” and used his words to stand up for people. His career as a newspaper columnist spanned 30 years and 8,400 columns.

“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,” Sen. Klobuchar said. “He loved our state. He loved journalism. He loved sports and adventure. And we loved him.”

Jim Klobuchar worked as a reporter in Bismarck, N.D., and for The Associated Press in Minnesota before taking a sports writing job for what is now the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 1961. He retired from the Star Tribune in 1995.