TOPEKA, Kan. — Nancy Kassebaum Baker, a Kansas governor’s daughter who became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate without following a spouse into office, has died. She was 94.
\n\nKassebaum Baker died Friday of natural causes, according to her son, Bill Kassebaum.
\n\n“She loved Kansas. She loved people from Kansas and representing Kansas for 18 years in the U.S. Senate,” he told The Associated Press. “She was an independent-minded Republican who was willing to stand up for what she thought was right, even if that meant going against the party.”
\n\nShe was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978 and served three terms. Her modest demeanor endeared her to voters of all political stripes, though she shared the moderate, progressive Republican politics of her father, Gov. Alf Landon, the unsuccessful 1936 GOP nominee for president. Even after leaving the Senate early in 1997, she continued taking on public service roles.
\n\nShe married former Sen. Howard Baker, a Tennessee Republican, in 1996. He died in 2014.
\n\nKassebaum Baker remained an icon for Kansans generally. She could work with Senate colleagues of all political philosophies, and a 1996 health insurance law bore her name, along with that of liberal Massachusetts…
Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/