📰 Curated from Associated Press
📖 Read full article→Nancy Kassebaum Baker, former US senator from Kansas, dies at 94 - AP News
WorldBy John Hanna8/22/20261 min read
Former U.S. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker of Kansas has died. She was 94. She was a Kansas governor’s daughter who became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate without following a spouse into office in 1978. Her modest demeanor made her among Kansas’ most p…
✨ Key Highlights
- Nancy Kassebaum Baker, a former three-term Republican U.S. senator from Kansas, died Friday of natural causes at age 94, according to her son Bill Kassebaum.
- She made history as the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate without following a spouse into office, winning her seat in 1978 and serving until early 1997.
- The daughter of Kansas Gov. Alf Landon, the unsuccessful 1936 GOP presidential nominee, she shared her father's moderate, progressive Republican politics and built a reputation as an independent-minded centrist.
- Known for her modest demeanor and ability to work across the aisle, she co-authored the 1996 health insurance law that bore her name alongside liberal Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, formally the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act signed by President Bill Clinton.
- In 1980 she served as temporary chairman of the Republican National Convention in Detroit, and she continued taking on public service roles after leaving the Senate.
- She married former Tennessee Republican Sen. Howard Baker in 1996; he died in 2014, and she remained an enduring icon for Kansans across the political spectrum.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Nancy Kassebaum Baker, a Kansas governors daughter who became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate without following a spouse into office, has died. She was 94.
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