Nancy Kassebaum Baker
| Nancy Kassebaum | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Chairperson of the Senate Labor Committee | |
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In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 1997 |
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| Preceded by | Ted Kennedy |
| Succeeded by | Jim Jeffords |
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United States Senator from Kansas |
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In office December 23, 1978 – January 3, 1997 |
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| Preceded by | James Pearson |
| Succeeded by | Pat Roberts |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Nancy Landon July 29, 1932 Topeka, Kansas, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Philip Kassebaum (1956–1979) Howard Baker (1996–2014) |
| Alma mater |
University of Kansas (B.A.) University of Michigan (M.A.) |
Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker (born July 29, 1932) is an American politician who represented the State of Kansas in the United States Senate from 1978 to 1997. She is the daughter of Alf Landon, who was Governor of Kansas from 1933 to 1937 and the 1936 Republican nominee for president, and the widow of former Senator and diplomat Howard Baker. She was the first woman ever elected to a full term in the Senate without her husband having previously served in Congress.
Baker was born Nancy Landon in Topeka, Kansas, the daughter of Theo (née Cobb) and Governor Alf Landon. She attended Topeka High School and graduated in 1950. She graduated from the University of Kansas in Lawrence in 1954, where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta. In 1956, she received a master's degree in diplomatic history from the University of Michigan, where she met her first husband, Philip Kassebaum. They married in 1956. They settled in Maize, Kansas, where they raised four children.
She worked as vice president of Kassebaum Communications, a family-owned company that operated several radio stations. Kassebaum also served on the Maize School Board. In 1975, Kassebaum and her husband were legally separated; their divorce became final in 1979. She worked in Washington, D.C., as a caseworker for Senator James B. Pearson of Kansas in 1975, but Kassebaum returned to Kansas the following year.
She was the first woman ever elected to a full term in the Senate without her husband having previously served in Congress, and the second woman elected to a US Senate seat without it being held first by her husband (Margaret Chase Smith of Maine was first elected to the House of Representatives to fill her husband's vacancy but later won four Senate elections) or appointed to complete a deceased husband's term. She was also the first woman to represent Kansas in the Senate.
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