KANSAS CITY (AP) - Several political items, including correspondence with presidents and other leaders, are among the auction items from the estate items of former Missouri Congressman Ike Skelton.
The Skelton estate items, including a 1988 birthday greeting from "Ron" Reagan at "the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue," went up for bid June 16 at the website of the KC Auction & Appraisal Co. The bidding for most of the 376 lots began at $5. The auction continues until 7 p.m. June 30, The Kansas City Star reported (http://bit.ly/1lB5FIm).
Skelton, a Democrat, was elected to the Missouri Senate in 1970 and served until winning a congressional election in 1976. Skelton was chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and served in the U.S. House for 34 years before losing re-election in 2010. He built a reputation as a moderate-to-conservative Democrat, a military historian and an advocate of the Armed Forces.
He died last year of complications from pneumonia at age 81.
Among other items being auctioned is a photograph of Skelton and President Jimmy Carter on Air Force One in 1980. Carter is smiling at Skelton, who is asleep. Carter wrote on the official White House photograph: "To my good friend Ike Skelton, alert guardian of the public's interest."
There are also inauguration souvenirs from Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Carter and Bill Clinton and correspondence from the White House going back to Harry Truman and including George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher also signed a letter to Skelton, which is framed with a photo of her addressing Congress.
Hillary Rodham Clinton is also represented in the correspondence, as are Dan Quayle, Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld.