Cissy Baker says she’s going to miss going to Kansas for Christmas to be with her stepmother, former U.S. Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker, who died Aug. 21. She says she had been going there from her home in Virginia since her father, former Tennessee U.S. Sen. Howard H. Baker Jr., died in his hometown of Huntsville, Tennessee, in 2014.
“She’s a dear friend. I spent every Christmas there after Dad died and was there for her birthday,” Baker said tearfully in an interview on Sept. 3. Kassebaum Baker had just turned 94 on July 29. “We were very close. She was beyond being a stepmother, a real friend.”
Kassebaum Baker represented Kansas from 1978–1997, following in the footsteps of her father, former Kansas Gov. Alfred Landon, who was a GOP presidential
contender in 1936. After she and Howard Baker married, they divided their time between her farm in Morris County, Kansas, and Huntsville, although the last few years of Howard Baker’s life they were in Tennessee.
Cissy, whose formal name is Cynthia, was the daughter of Baker and his first wife, Joy Dirksen Baker, who died in 1993. Joy Baker’s father was the late former Senate Minority leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois.
Kassebaum Baker moved back to Kansas and to a farm after Baker died. A son, William Kassebaum, manages the farm.
“I’d go with Bill to feed the cattle,” Cissy Baker said of her visits to Kansas. Sometimes Kassebaum Baker had to wake her up so that she could join him, she said. There are 300 heads of cattle there. Baker said the son would bring bales of hay near his mother’s house deliberately, and then when he came to get food for the cattle, it gave him an excuse also to visit with his mother.
With the start of college football season, Baker said she’s going to miss talking with Kassebaum Baker about the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and University of Kansas and Kansas State teams. “The other day I wanted to pick up the phone and talk to her about football. She had been on the NCAA board” so kept up with teams, Baker said. “I really miss talking with her.”
When Kassebaum Baker was in the Senate, she was known for her independent stance and was the second woman to chair a standing Senate committee, Labor and Human Resources. At the time of her election, she was the only woman senator. She married Howard Baker the same year she retired from the Senate.
She accompanied Baker, who had been Senate Minority and Majority Leader, to Tokyo when he was U.S. ambassador to Japan under President George W. Bush after serving as chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan. President Joe Biden awarded her with the Presidential Citizens Medal which Cissy Baker accepted on her behalf in January 2025.
Kassebaum Baker had three other children besides William with her first husband, Phillip Kassebaum: John, Linda and Richard. John lives in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. Richard was a documentary editor and producer for PBS when diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2007; he died in a Knoxville hospital in 2008 after suffering a seizure while visiting his mother in Huntsville. Linda Kassebaum Johnson died in 2020 of progressive supranuclear palsy.
Baker said her stepmother died of symptoms of old age. There will not be a memorial service, at Kassebaum Baker’s request. Her remains have been interned on the family farm.
“She was one of the most wonderful persons I’ve ever known,” she said.
Baker, who has been in television news management, said she continues her work as a certified counselor and peer recovery specialist for women recovering from alcohol and drug abuse.
DEMOCRATIC FUNDRAISER: State Rep. Aftyn Behn of Nashville, a former congressional candidate in Middle Tennessee, and writer Corbin Trent of Lenoir City, a political strategist for progressive Democrats, will be featured speakers at the Knox County Democratic Party’s annual Truman Day fundraiser Sept. 9 at Bridgewater Place, 205 Bridgewater Road.
Behn, a Knoxville native, is a graduate of Webb School. She has degrees in history and social work and has been a health care community organizer for the Tennessee Justice Center in Nashville and been active in campaigns fighting sexual assault against underage girls. She has been in the Tennessee General Assembly since 2023 and was the Democratic nominee for the 7th Congressional District in a special election in 2025, but was defeated by Republican Matt Van Epps in the general election on Dec. 9, 2025.
Trent is an Appalachian factory owner-turned-political strategist, was a cofounder of Justice Democrats, a former communications director for U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and a strategist for the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in 2019-20. He writes on "A Fight Worth Having - The People's Super PAC."
Also scheduled to speak are Michaela Barnett, Democratic nominee for Tennessee’s 2nd Congressional District, and Jerri Green, Democratic nominee for Tennessee governor from Memphis, who is a public defender and member of Memphis City Council.
Knox County Democrats are buoyed with recent inroads into the County Commission and becoming the majority on the Board of Education. The event chair is Sarah Roberto, a global events coordinator; she said her services for this event are pro bono. She is the wife of former Knoxville Councilman Andrew Roberto.
The events runs 5:30-8:30 p.m. Tickets are $100 each and can be ordered at https://knoxvilledemocrats.org/td2026. A news media release from Sarah Roberto says space is limited and tickets are selling quickly, with the ticket price including the dinner, program and afterparty.
A LOOK AT CONGRESS: The 2nd District Congressional campaign has become a classic conservative Republican-progressive Democratic choice.
A message of incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett of Knoxville is that “Washington looked like somebody left the gate open at the woke circus. DEI this. Pronouns that. Open borders. Trans mutation surgeries being pushed on our kids.” A release from the Burchett campaign claims President Donald Trump is back “and common sense is back in style.”
He asks supporters to keep the “lunatic circus out of town” and chip in money to help him get re-elected on Nov. 2.
Burchett is a former member of the Tennessee legislature and a Knox County mayor who is considered one of the leading candidates to succeed U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn if she is elected Tennessee governor and appoints her successor.
Barnett, Democratic nominee for the Congressional seat, has received the endorsement of the National Women’s Political Caucus, which supports a women’s right to choose an abortion; equal pay to ensure women are compensated fairly for their work: increased access to child care and other dependent care; and passage of a federal Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“I am proud to receive the National Women’s Political Caucus’ endorsement,” Barnett, a small-business owner, said in a release. “Every American deserves access to the same opportunities and freedoms, both in everyday life and in our political process. While immense progress has been made by organizations like NWPC since its founding in 1971, women still face discrimination in the workplace, in access to care, and in the law.”
Nearly four dozen people are hosting a bluegrass and barbecue party for Barrett at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 10 at Riverdale School, a private home at 7009 Thorn Grove Pike. More information is available at michaelafortennessee.com/events.
Georgiana Vines is retired News Sentinel associate editor. She may be reached at gvpolitics@hotmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Nancy Kassebaum Baker left a legacy of service and friendship | Vines
