PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID OMAHA NE PERMIT NO. 389
A publication of the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging
New Horizons June 2026 | Vol. 51 | No. 6
Filmmaker David Weiss explores the life of Dean Battiato in new doc ‘The Rose Man of Omaha’
By Leo Adam Biga ean Battiato challenges perceptions. Start with the fact he stands 4’9. Then there’s his stoic demeanor and flat voice – symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism he was born with. That leads to awkward encounters. Yet he chooses putting himself in people’s personal space by hawking imported cut roses at bars and restaurants in the Old Market and Benson and at events like Jazz on the Green. Not everyone appreciates his trade. Drunks and bullies see an easy target for harassment. Most people are polite even when putting him off. Some engage in conversation. Enough actually purchase roses that he’s been able to make a living at this for a quarter century. As a little person with an exotic occupation he’s been the focus of media stories and a video spoof. Now he’s the subject of an awardwinning feature length documen-
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COURTESY PHOTO tary, The Rose Man of Omaha. Its director, Omahan David Weiss, bought roses from Battiato and grew curious about profiling him. Bat-
tiato agreed to an intimate chronicle of his life. Where Weiss envisioned doing a short, Battiato saw a feature. “He knew, he was right,”
Weiss said. “It was like peeling back an onion, there were so many layers to him.” Touching human moments and heartbreaking revelations unfolded spontaneously in response to questions Weiss posed. “It was all unscripted,” said Battiato. “I didn’t know what he was going to ask me. I didn’t give a lot of thought to what I said.” At any juncture, Weiss said, “I had no idea it was going to play out the way it did.” Batiato grew up in Fremont, Nebraska. His Sicilian immigrant grandfather first settled in Omaha, following family members who preceded him to America. From a long line of cobblers, he opened his own shoe repair shop. When the competition proved too fierce, he moved to Fremont, where Battiato Shoe Repair became a success. Dean’s father took it over and then Dean’s --Battiato continued on page 11.