1. Nancy Josephine Kassebaum Baker is an American retired politician from Kansas who served as a member of the United States Senate from 1978 to 1997.
43 Facts About Nancy Kassebaum
1. 2.
Nancy Kassebaum 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 US senator and diplomat Howard Baker.
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Nancy Kassebaum was the first woman ever elected to a full term in the Senate without her husband having previously served in Congress.
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The legislation which was enacted in 1986, over a presidential veto, was drafted by Senators Lugar, Roth, McConnell, and Dole, although later in life, Nancy Kassebaum claimed credit for it.
5.
Nancy Kassebaum Josephine Landon was born in Topeka, Kansas on July 29,1932, the daughter of Kansas First Lady Theo and Governor Alf Landon.
6.
Nancy Kassebaum attended Topeka High School, and graduated in 1950.
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Nancy Kassebaum graduated from the University of Kansas in Lawrence in 1954, where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, and where she met her first husband, John Philip Kassebaum.
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Nancy Kassebaum worked as vice president of Kassebaum Communications, a family-owned company that operated several radio stations.
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At the time that she entered the race, Nancy Kassebaum was legally separated from her husband, Philip, but not yet divorced.
10.
Nancy Kassebaum chose to use the name Nancy Landon Kassebaum, to capitalize on her father's political reputation in the state.
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Nancy Kassebaum defeated eight other Republicans in the 1978 primary elections to replace retiring Republican James B Pearson, and then defeated former Democratic representative William R Roy in the general election.
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Nancy Kassebaum was re-elected to her Senate seat in 1984 and 1990, but did not seek re-election in 1996.
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Nancy Kassebaum helped lead an unsuccessful bi-partisan effort to curb soaring federal deficits in the early years of the Reagan administration.
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Nancy Kassebaum expressed strong support of anti-apartheid measures against South Africa in the 1980s.
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Nancy Kassebaum issued a public call for President Reagan and other Republicans to toughen US policy toward the white minority government in Pretoria.
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In March 1982, Nancy Kassebaum headed a US delegation to observe national elections in El Salvador, where the US-backed military junta was battling leftist guerrillas, while being unable to control human rights abuses by government forces and far-right paramilitary groups.
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Nancy Kassebaum became a key member of bi-partisan efforts to support the Salvadoran government with economic and military aid, while pressuring the government on human rights, land reforms, and more effective steps to prevent a guerrilla victory.
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Nancy Kassebaum repeatedly urged the Reagan administration to set a clear policy for a political solution to the civil war, while avoiding deeper US military involvement in the region.
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When Republicans won control of Congress in the 1994 elections, Nancy Kassebaum became chair of the Senate Labor Committee, with broad jurisdiction over federal domestic policy.
20.
Under Nancy Kassebaum's bill, signed into law by President Clinton, the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is the only NPS unit dedicated to preserving and providing public access to untamed tallgrass prairie that once covered more than 400,000 square miles of the American heartland.
21.
Early in her career, Nancy Kassebaum was tapped to serve as Temporary Chairman of the 1980 Republican National Convention.
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Nancy Kassebaum voted for the nomination of Robert Bork, which was rejected by the Senate.
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Nancy Kassebaum later expressed regret for voting to confirm Thomas to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1991, expressing disappointment in his performance.
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Nancy Kassebaum voted against a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed Congress and the states to ban or restrict abortions.
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Nancy Kassebaum voted in favor of the bill establishing Martin Luther King Jr.
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Nancy Kassebaum was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1996.
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Nancy Kassebaum was Chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the George C Marshall Foundation and the American-Turkish Council.
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Senator Nancy Kassebaum served on the Board of Directors of the National Committee on US-China Relations, the African Law Institute Council-ABA, and the International Medical Corps.
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Nancy Kassebaum remained active on issues such as campaign finance reform.
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In 2000, Nancy Kassebaum was appointed as Co-Chair of The Presidential Appointee Initiative Advisory Board, a Brookings Institution commission that delivered reform recommendations to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.
31.
From 2001 to 2005, Senator Baker served as the United States Ambassador to Japan and Nancy Kassebaum accompanied him to Japan, living in Tokyo during this time.
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Nancy Kassebaum was recognized for her work with Baker in Japan, including organizing a regional conference in Tokyo to combat human trafficking in Asia in 2004.
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Nancy Kassebaum is an Advisory Board member for the Partnership for a Secure America, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to recreating the bipartisan center in American national security and foreign policy.
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Nancy Kassebaum is a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One.
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Nancy Kassebaum is a noted critic of former President Donald Trump.
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Nancy Kassebaum endorsed Republican-turned-Democrat Barbara Bollier for the 2020 Senate election in Kansas over her Republican opponent Roger Marshall.
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Nancy Kassebaum was awarded an honorary doctorate from Kansas State University in 2015.
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Nancy Kassebaum was honored by the Native Sons and Daughters of Kansas as Distinguished Kansas in 1978, and she received it Citation for Distinguished Statesmanship in 2000.
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In 1985, Nancy Kassebaum received the Distinguished Service Citation from her alma mater, University of Kansas.
40.
In January 2025 Nancy Kassebaum was one of twenty recipients of the Presidential Citizens Medal.
41.
In 1955, Nancy Kassebaum married John Philip Nancy Kassebaum, and they had four children.
42.
Nancy Kassebaum then married former US Senator and Diplomat Howard Baker of Tennessee on December 7,1996.
43.
Nancy Kassebaum's son, William Kassebaum, is a former member of the Kansas House of Representatives.