Nancy Landon Kassebaum

Kassebaum, Nancy Landon (1932– ), U.S. Republican senator from Kansas since 1978. Having never held political office before, Kassebaum became the first woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate without having first been appointed to a congressional seat to complete a spouse's term. Her father, Alfred M. Landon, was one-time governor of Kansas and lost the 1936 presidential election to Franklin D. Roosevelt by a wide margin.