Nancy Kassebaum Baker, a Senate Pioneer, Dies at 94

Nancy Kassebaum Baker, a Kansas Republican who served three terms in the U.S. Senate (1978–1997), died August 21, 2026, at 94. She was the first woman elected to the Senate on her own, not because a husband had held the seat first. Daughter of 1936 presidential nominee Alf Landon, she co-wrote a law letting people keep health insurance between jobs and chaired the Labor Committee.