Nancy Kassebaum Baker, trailblazing GOP senator who broke barriers for women in Congress, dead at 94

Former Republican Sen.

Nancy Kassebaum Baker of Kansas, the first woman elected to the U.S.

Senate without previously having a husband serve in Congress, died Friday at 94.

Her son, Bill Kassebaum, told The Associated Press that she died of natural causes.

"She loved Kansas.

She loved people from Kansas and representing Kansas for 18 years in the U.S.

Senate," he told the AP.

"She was an independent-minded Republican who was willing to stand up for what she thought was right, even if that meant going against the party." Kassebaum Baker won election to the Senate in 1978 and served three terms before leaving office in 1997.

The daughter of former Kansas Gov.

Alf Landon, the Republican Party's unsuccessful 1936 presidential nominee, she built a reputation as a moderate Republican willing to break with her party.

TRAILBLAZING FORMER REPUBLICAN REP KAY GRANGER DIES AT 83: 'BROKE BARRIERS' Her election brought immediate national attention.

By the time she announced her retirement, she was one of eight women serving in the Senate and the only woman chairing a Senate committee.

Kassebaum Baker also developed a reputation for working across party lines.

A landmark 1996 health insurance law bore her name alongside that of Democratic Massachusetts Sen.