The state office building named for Frank J. Lausche sits at the edge of downtown Cleveland. It's an appropriate location for a politician who prided himself on being an outsider. Although Lausche came from dyed-in-the-wool Democratic stock, biographer James Odenkirk says he remained fiercely independent throughout his political career.
James Odenkirk: It's kind of a Horatio Alger story - from rags to riches. And how you can be a winner and not have to jump in with the system. No one controlled Lausche.
The son of working-class Slovenian immigrants, Frank Lausche's home turf was Cleveland's old Ward 23, along St. Clair Avenue, on the eastside. Joe Cimperman now represents the neighborhood in City Council. After a recent committee meeting, Cimperman recalled his first meeting with Lausche.
Joe Cimperman: I was 11 years old. And every July 4th, he would have a mass said at St. Vitus for his mom and dad, and I was a Catholic server at St. Vitus. And he took us all out for pancakes. And when I got home, she was like, 'Where were you?' And I said, 'We went out for breakfast with Senator Lausche.' And she said, 'You'll never forget that.' And it's true.
Frank Lausche left similar memories with thousands of Clevelanders. He was never far from a nationality festival or a church fish fry. Mike Polensek, who represents Collinwood, says Lausche was always out in the community.
Mike Polensek: He did it all. He went to all the events. All of the ethnic neighborhoods.
Frank Lausche's public career began on the bench in 1932, first as a Cleveland Municipal Court judge, and then in the court of Common Pleas, where he first got attention for closing down some local gambling houses. From there, it was a short step to Mayor, in 1941.
George Voinovich: Louie Seltzer, unlike the editors of today, he used to go out in the neighborhoods and hear people speak. And he was taken to Lausche, and then beat the drum that he should be the next mayor of the City of Cleveland.
Like Democratic councilmen Cimperman and Polensek, Republican U.S. Senator George Voinovich comes from Catholic-Slovenian stock. Before Frank Lausche, the higher political offices were mostly held by white Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Voinovich says Lausche was an inspiration.
George Voinovich: A seed gets planted in your head that maybe Frank Lausche could do that, then maybe that's something that I could do, and I think it's the same when Carl Stokes became the mayor of the city of Cleveland, a lot of kids in the African American community decided, hey, I have a future here.
When Lausche made the decision to run for governor in 1945, there were many skeptics who doubted this ethnic mayor of Cleveland had much of a future outside of the multi-cultural confines of Northeast Ohio. Biographer James Odenkirk says he ran into resistance, at first.
James Odenkirk: He said, 'I went down to the southern part of Ohio, and they thought, 'Who's this foreigner who's running?'
That distrust soon faded. Especially, when people heard him speak.
James Odenkirk: He was a powerful speaker, kind of an FDR type. He had that ability to captivate his audience.
George Voinovich: There was no one that could get up in front of a group of people and give a speech like him, and by the time he got finished everybody had tears in their eyes.
August Pust has served as a nationalities advisor to officials on the city, state, and federal level. His first impression of Frank Lausche came as an 18-year-old student, just off the boat from Slovenia. He recalls that Lausche was not only a dynamic speaker, but well-read one, at that.
August Pust: All of the sudden, he got up and started reciting - in Slovenian - Slovenian poetry and I couldn't believe it. And then, much to my amazement, he switched to Shakespeare - both in English and Slovenian. He did it by heart, with no references. And he looked like Moses on top of the mountain. He was there preaching poetry.
That sort of sway with the voters got Lausche elected to the U.S. Senate in 1956 - a post that he held for twelve years. But, biographer James Odenkirk says that, as he got older, Lausche became more and more conservative, and his famous independence calcified into orneriness.
James Odenkirk: He got more crotchety, more angry. I think he retreated within himself, and because of that he didn't become a people person, like he had been, when it came to the electorate. So, bingo, he was a dead duck in 1968.
Mike Polensek cautions against judging the long reign of Frank Lausche by his last few years in office.
Mike Polensek: Did he get caught in a time warp in the late 60s? He certainly did. But, up until that time, look at his history. Look at what he accomplished.
Biographer James Odenkirk thinks Lausche had a mixed legacy. As Governor, his sponsorship of the Ohio Turnpike was his major state accomplishment. Odenkirk says his track record in the Senate was less than stellar.
James Odenkirk: He was a reactive politician. He responded to what other people were doing. He didn't initiate much legislation of any significance. Very little.
But, for George Voinovich, there is no doubt about Frank Lausche's importance.
George Voinovich: Lausche was the trail blazer. He absolutely proved that someone from Cleveland who had a different name, ethnic background, Roman Catholic, was a half-way decent person and could be governor of Ohio.
Frank Lausche died of congestive heart failure in 1990 at the age of 94. A who's who of Ohio politics - Democrat and Republican - attended the funeral at an overflowing St. Vitus church, in the old neighborhood. For all the political enemies that Lausche made, due to his maverick tendencies, Ward 13 councilman Joe Cimperman says there was one thing that remained consistent throughout his life.
Joe Cimperman: It was really telling when the New York Times did his obituary. The first line was, 'Nobody liked Frank Lausche, except for the people.'
The new biography is called Frank J. Lausche, Ohio's Great Political Maverick. I'm David C. Barnett, 90.3.