A Republican known as Kit, he was the state’s youngest governor. When he retired from Congress after four terms, he said he didn’t want to be the state’s oldest senator.

Christopher “Kit” Bond, a Republican who brought billions of dollars in federal funding to Missouri during his four terms in the U.S. Senate and who was state's the youngest person to be governor, died Tuesday.

Former U.S. senator and Missouri governor Christopher S. "Kit" Bond died May 13 at age 86. Bond spent 40 years in public service and was known as a "favorite son" of Missouri, Gov. Mike Kehoe said in a statement.