Ex-senator Kit Bond selling his longtime home in Missouri

MEXICO, Mo. -- Former U.S. senator Kit Bond of is selling the six-bedroom, six-bath brick Colonial mansion in central Missouri that was his base during his long political career.

Bond said he wanted to return to Mexico when he retired from the Senate after a 24-year career there, but it made more sense to move to St. Louis after he began working as a partner in the Thompson Coburn law firm, The Columbia Daily Tribune reported.

Work and travel made it hard to spend any time in Mexico, where Bond was born, but that didn't make the decision to sell the home easy.

"It was very hard, emotionally, to put it on the market," Bond said. "That was the rock and foundation when I went through difficult times."

Bond's parents built the home in the 1930s.

Bond said he's selling the home and 12 acres, with an asking price of $650,000, but he's keeping 10 acres that include a successful chestnut grove.

Bond inherited the house after his mother's death in 1986, the same year he was elected to the U.S. Senate after terms as governor from 1973 to 1977 and 1981 to 1985.

It was his home base when Bond was forced to sue his investment manager for draining a $1.3 million trust fund and when he was divorced from his wife of 28 years, Carolyn Bond.

After a few years of disrepair, the home has been remodeled and is in good shape.

Jim Dye, a Realtor and friend of Bond's for more than 40 years, said he will do his best to sell the home, but he would prefer it if Bond stayed in the area.

"Well, I was very appreciative of the fact that he called me, because I've known Kit for years and years, but at the same time, we're very proud over here of the fact that Kit grew up here in town and that he has lived here all these years, and I'm sorry to see that he won't be living here," Dye said.

Dye said he's in discussions with three potential buyers.