Born in 1932 in Topeka, Kansas, Nancy Kassebaum Baker was U.S. senator from Kansas from 1979 to 1997. A Republican, Kassebaum Baker was chairwoman of the Subcommittee on African Affairs, Subcommittee on Aviation and the Labor and Human Resources Committee. 

After leaving the Senate, Senator Kassebaum Baker served on the Board of Trustees for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Kaiser Family Foundation. She 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. Senator 
Kassebaum Baker was also on the Board of Directors of the National Committee on US-China Relations, the African Law Institute Council-ABA, the International Medical Corps and Handgun Control.

She married former United States Majority Leader and White House Chief of Staff, Howard Baker, in December of 1996. She has four children and seven grandchildren.