Bond honored in Missouri Capitol memorial service
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
A memorial service Tuesday afternoon at the Missouri State Capitol honored former governor and U.S. Senator Christopher "Kit" Bond.
A Missouri State Highway Patrol escort brought Bond to the Capitol beginning at 9 a.m. from St. Louis. A state memorial ceremony took place at noon in the first-floor rotunda of the Capitol. Bond's body will lie in state in the Capitol for 24 hours.
Bond died in St. Louis on May 13, Gov. Mike Kehoe's office said then. He was 86.
Missouri political figures from across party lines came to Jefferson City to pay their respects to bond. Former U.S. Senator Jack Danforth, who hired Bond as an assistant attorney general in the late 1960s, gave the invocation and benediction for the ceremony. Danforth said Bond was a man of many talents, including his "boundless energy." Danforth encouraged the crowd to live like Bond and share those talents rather than keep them for personal gain.
"He invested his talents, put them at risk, and produced such a great return for our state," Danforth said. "Taking risks is the nature of a life in elective politics."
U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Kansas City) told the crowd of his many meetings with Bond when the Republican was both governor and U.S. senator. Cleaver said Bond threw him a reception in Washington D.C. after his first election to Congress in 2004.
""And I would daresay that you could not see that today," Cleaver said of a nationally-recognized Republican politician honoring a Democratic one. "Which means we really need a lot of Kit Bonds."
The north and south circle drive around the Capitol will be closed until 1 p.m. on Wednesday. Those with ADA accommodations will be allowed to park on North Circle Drive and must enter at West Capitol and Jefferson Street.
The 135th Army Band played at the state ceremony. Flags continue to fly at half-staff across the state to commemorate Bond's death and will do so until sunset on Thursday. The highway patrol will escort Bond's body back to St. Louis at noon on Wednesday, where another ceremony will take place on Thursday.
Bond will lie in state in the same room where he took his first oath of office 55 years ago, beginning a decades-long political career. Missourians elected the then-31-year-old Republican from Mexico, Mo., to the state auditor's office. Two years later, Bond became the state's youngest governor and first Republican to hold the office since the 1940s. He lost reelection in 1976 to Joe Teasdale, but won the rematch in the 1980 election.
Former Missourinet radio chief and historian Bob Priddy remembered Bond as a man who worked to prove himself as a young leader. That included learning how to work across the political aisle with Democrats to make changes. Those skills would help him in his congressional career in securing federal investments in the state.
After serving his two terms as governor, Bond was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986, winning three subsequent elections and retiring in 2011.
As governor, Bond helped reorganize state government. In 1976, he rescinded one of the state's most infamous executive orders, which allowed for the killing of Mormons in 1838, calling it "clearly" unconstitutional. During his inaugural address of 1973, Bond reflected on the need to build trust between government and people.
"They have put that trust in the people of this administration and in the people who serve it; they have put that trust in all of us here as elected officials," Bond said, according to an archive of the speech printed in The Daily Capital News. "That trust shall be our conscience as we seek to build the faith of Missouri in its public servants. That trust shall be our inspiration as we develop a government to serve people, rather than stifle them.”
