TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker of Kansas has died. She was 94. Kansas lawmakers shared their thoughts on the political trailblazer.
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 popular politicians after she won her first of three terms in the U.S. Senate.
She shared the moderate, progressive Republican politics of her father, Gov. Alf Landon. He was the unsuccessful 1936 GOP nominee for president. Kassebaum Baker continued to take on roles in public service after leaving the Senate in 1997. She married former Tennessee Sen. Howard Baker in 1996. He died in 2014.