Former Kansas Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker, a pioneering Republican who served 18 years in the U.S. Senate, has died at age 94.
Her son, Bill Kassebaum, confirmed that she died Friday of natural causes.
Kassebaum Baker made history in 1978 when she became the first woman elected to the Senate without previously having a husband serve in Congress.
She represented Kansas for three terms and developed a reputation as an independent-minded Republican willing to challenge her party when she believed a different position was necessary.
“She loved Kansas. She loved people from Kansas and representing Kansas for 18 years in the U.S. Senate,” her son told the AP.
He described her as a Republican who stood by her convictions, even when doing so meant breaking with party leaders.
Kassebaum Baker’s political outlook was shaped in part by her father, Alf Landon, a former Kansas governor and the Republican presidential nominee who lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936.
Before entering politics, she earned a political science degree from the University of Kansas and a master’s degree in diplomatic history from the University of Michigan.
She worked as a radio station executive, served briefly on the staff of Kansas Sen. James Pearson and later joined a local school board near Wichita.
Her unconventional background helped distinguish her during the 1978 Senate campaign, when many voters were seeking alternatives to traditional political figures.
Kassebaum Baker eventually became one of the most influential women in Congress and chaired the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee.
At the time she prepared to retire, eight women were serving in the Senate, but she was the only woman leading a committee.
One of her most significant legislative achievements came through a bipartisan partnership with Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy.
The pair helped advance the 1996 health insurance reform law commonly known as the Kennedy-Kassebaum Act.
The legislation created federal protections involving health insurance portability and limited the ability of insurers to deny coverage based on certain gaps in a person’s insurance history.
Kassebaum Baker also supported some positions that placed her at odds with the Republican Party’s conservative wing.
She backed the federal assault weapons ban supported by Democratic President Bill Clinton, reflecting her moderate approach to several issues.
Despite those differences, she remained popular in heavily Republican Kansas and generally avoided the intense intraparty battles that later became common in Washington.
In 1996, she married former Tennessee Republican Sen. Howard Baker, a former Senate majority leader. Baker died in 2014.
Kassebaum Baker retired from the Senate in early 1997 but remained active in public service and Kansas civic life.
Her family remembered her as a mentor, teacher and steady presence whose influence extended beyond legislation, according to the Conservative Brief.
She is survived by her children, including Bill, who later served in the Kansas House of Representatives.
Funeral arrangements were not immediately announced.
Her death marks the passing of one of the Senate’s early female Republican leaders and a prominent voice for bipartisan cooperation.
