Howard Henry BAKER, Jr., Congress, TN (1925)

BAKER, Howard Henry, Jr., (son of Howard Henry Baker, stepson of Irene Bailey Baker, son-in-law of Everett Dirksen, and husband of Nancy Landon Kassebaum), a Senator from Tennessee; born in Huntsville, Scott County, Tenn., November 15, 1925; attended Tulane University, New Orleans, La., and University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn.; graduated from the University of Tennessee Law College 1949; served in the United States Navy 1943-1946; admitted to the Tennessee bar in 1949 and commenced practice; unsuccessful candidate for election to the U.S. Senate in 1964; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1966; reelected in 1972 and again in 1978, and served from January 3, 1967, to January 3, 1985; did not seek reelection; minority leader 1977-1981; majority leader 1981-1985; unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 1980; lawyer in Washington, D.C.; awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on March 26, 1984; chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan 1987-1988; U.S. Ambassador to Japan, 2001-2005.

Bibliography

Annis, James. Howard Baker: Conciliator in an Age of Crises. Lanham, Md.: Madison Books, 1994; U.S. Congress. Senate. Tributes to the Honorable Howard Baker, Jr., of Tennessee in the United States Senate, Upon the Occasion of His Retirement from the Senate. 98th Cong., 2d sess., 1984. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1984.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present