He reportedly never entertained or enjoyed social outings. However, he avoided the notoriety of coming out even after Kennedys death, perhaps because he feared that it would draw more negative attention to the extended Kennedy family, which soon struggled with a range of scandals: Chappaquidick, alcoholism, divorce and drugs were but a few. On some weekends, Jack and Lem would go up there. Adapted from New York Times bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer's explosive new book, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: RFK Jr. and the Dark Side of the Dream. Bobby Kennedy Jr. gave the eulogy. They soon began spiraling toward their eventual demise. [4], Some historians believe that Billings expressed his sexual interest in Kennedy in writing in 1934 and that Kennedy rebuffed his advances. After the assassination of Robert Kennedy, a distraught Ethel turned over her son, Bobby Jr., to Billings to act as his surrogate father, sparking her brother-in-law, Terrien RFK's roommate at the University of Virginia law school to wonder why she would allow 'Lem to have such an intimate relationship' with her troubled third born, who would go on to have a a bizarre relationship with Billings, including the taking of drugs. [16], On September 12, 1953, Billings was an usher at the wedding of Kennedy and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. Jack's best friend was Lem and he would want me to remind everyone of that today." The president was famously believed to have affairs during their marriage. as not being gay since they only gave each other BJs (as in Lewinsky/Clinton sex?)! May I come inside?" Language: English Words: 1,469 . In the summer of 1937 Billings and Kennedy took a summer trip through Europe which solidified their friendship. Having been given special access to the Billings papers by Robert Kennedy, Jr., Pitts was either unable to verify a sexual relationship, or he was unwilling to cite his source. Access Restriction Status: Open. Who was Jack Lemmon's wife? ", Still, he was well aware of his proximity to history. Jerry Oppenheimer is a New York Times bestselling author who has written two books about the Kennedys. Billings as a teenager was 6' 2", weighed 175 pounds, and was the strongest member of the Choate crew. (Page 213), "Jack made a big difference in my life. He remained close with various family members, most notably Robert F. Kennedy Jr., though there was a dark side: Peter Collier and David Horowitz's The Kennedys: An American Drama for which Billings gave a number of interviews describes him descending into drug use in connection with his relationship with a young Bobby Kennedy (who had well documented drug issues himself). Sexual Abuse at Choate Went On for Decades. "Because of him," Lem Billings once said of President Kennedy, "I was never lonely" Among the snapshots is one that shows a handsome pre-presidential Kennedy sunning himself, sprawled on a chaise at Patriarch Joe Kennedy's Palm Beach estate. The two became friends, then roommates. 0 references. Bobby Kennedy Jr. gave the eulogy. John F. Kennedy's best friend for three decades was a gay man, according to a new book titled, "Jack and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings.The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship;" the book documents the relationship between the two men from its beginnings at a New England prep school in 1933 until the gunfire in Dallas in 1963. Their very intimate relationship would last from those school days to Billings even having a room in the Kennedy White House distressing for the first lady to the day of Kennedy's assassination. Those who knew Charles described him as a sour, angry man. Jack, meanwhile, drew on Billings' unerring presence in his life by his side in sickness and on the campaign trail and even at the White House, where Billings had a room (and where there were at least whispers among the staff about the truth of his personal relationships). Ethel's alcoholic, philandering brother, George Skakel Jr., actually booted Billings in the a** at the church, knocking him into the aisle. [21][22] The next year, Kennedy named him to a board to plan America's participation in the New York World's Fair of 19645. When a butler commented on the fact that Billings was leaving his belongings in one of the third-floor guest rooms, the First Lady replied: "He's been my house guest since I was married. Was this part of his commitment to the Presidents good health? As we both know, homosexual relationships in English boarding schools were put down to adolescent hijinks and men *grew out of them*. '"[39], Most recognized that Billings and Kennedy had been friends from youth and did not question their relationship or Billings' presence. In 1958, when Kennedy decided to launch a campaign for the presidency from his Massachusetts Senate seat, the United States had not yet experienced a sexual revolution that would challenge and change many people. Billings then prepared responses and read them aloud to her. Lem never really left Jacks orbit after boarding school. From 1933 to 1946, Billings and JFK exchanged letters, with Jack often antagonizing Lem in the correspondence. On March 4, 1961, The New York Times reported, Billings even escorted two baby hamsters, Debbie and Billie, from New York to Washington, for young Caroline. [3] They became fast friends, drawn to each other by their mutual distaste for their strict school. "Jack made a big difference in my life," Billings said in his oral history for the Kennedy library, adding, "He may have been the reason I never got married.". He wanted to be with him, to be a part of whatever he wanted to do to continue Jack's legacy." 0 references. Billings, for his part, never married and eventually became a marketing executive and worked on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. But Kennedy's reaction to Billings gay come-on soon changed and he became more amenable to his friend's advances, according to the writer Lawrence J. Quirk, author of 'The Kennedys in Hollywood.' [4] The Muckers would pull pranks around the school and even planned to dump horse manure in the school gym, but that fell through after the headmaster found out. But above all, Bobby was very important to Lem personally. ', But Billings was embarrassed about his effeminate mannerisms he'd remain publicly closeted for his lifetime. He became Jackies confidant and the trusted recipient of her views about the other women who flitted in and out of her husbands life. And for Lem and Mark Chesmore, there's nothing more they enjoy doing than participating in their chosen sport of boxing. 1934: Young JFK in hospital The young JFK, messing around with Lem Billings during their Choate years In the summer of 1934, future United States president John F Kennedy was in his junior year at the prestigious Choate School in Connecticut. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. A telephone conversation between President Kennedy and Lem Billings. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings (April 15, 1916 - May 28, 1981) was a close friend of the Kennedy family, who had his own room at the White House during the Kennedy presidency. [68] His dying wish was for the young Kennedy men to carry his casket to its final resting place. [13] He later had several jobs, including selling Coca-Cola dispensers to drugstores and working at a General Shoe store. Of course, he had always loved the Cape and was completely happy there.'" [4], In 1939, Billings graduated from Princeton where he majored in art and architecture[5] and wrote his senior thesis on Tintoretto. In many ways, Kennedy was also enjoying the kind of sex life that would later characterize the gay mens party of the 1970s. When they arrived at the cemetery, it was already in place to be lowered. In Jackies absence, Lem managed the Presidents dinner parties, social life and children. His father was a prominent physician and a graduate of the U.S. 'They make fun of my voice. John F. Kennedy (right) and Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings sit in a wicker chair outside the Kennedy family home in Palm Beach. You can follow her on Twitter. [56] Charles L. Bartlett, a journalist who introduced Kennedy to Jacqueline Bouvier[57] and friend of both Billings and Kennedy, described their relationship: "Lem was a stable presence for Jack. In 1964, Billings was named to head a ten-person committee to select a memorial to Kennedy to be placed in the Kennedy Center. [17] In 1956 he was an usher at the wedding of Kennedy's sister Jean to Stephen Edward Smith. It impressed . The importance of other causes of death such as communicable diseases, maternal, neonatal and nutritional causes, and noncommunicable diseases like cancer and heart disease varied most between different countries. Criticisms from others in the Kennedy orbit insinuate that Jack took advantage of Lem's love for him without reciprocating. "[29] Historian Sally Bedell Smith compared him to Leonard Zelig, a nondescript character in Woody Allen's 1983 film who is always present in the back row at major events. Sitelinks. However he does quote Billings admission that he may have been in love with Kennedy his whole life. As they became close, Billings confided that his relationship with Kennedy was, in fact, sexual, to a point. [23] He represented the President when the alumni association unveiled Kennedy's portrait at Choate in May 1963. The Cold War was still raging, and there was fear Russian agents might use the friendship against Kennedy. Author Louis Bayard focuses much of his upcoming novel Jackie & Me on the relationship between Billings and Kennedy, too. 12 pdf icon; leading cause of death data, including firearm, homicide, and drug poisoning mortality data, and infant mortality . Billings repeated his senior year so that he and Kennedy could graduate from Choate together in 1935. Billings had once told Bobby that. While JFK is legendarily known as a master womanizer who frequently cheated on his first lady, his curious three-decades long intimate friendship with Billings suggests more than a simple bromance. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. It was Bobby Kennedy Jr. who gave the eulogy. When Billings died of a heart attack in 1981, Bobby Jr gave the eulogy (From left to right: Lem Billings, Bobby Kennedy Jr andEthel Kennedy), Part of the family: From childhood to adulthood, Billings stayed close to Jack Kennedy and his family. Lem (Kenny Johnson) refuses to live the rest of his life as a fugitive in Mexico.S5E11 - Postpartum (FX The Shield)I DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO THE VIDEO CLIPS. Lem Billings and John F Kennedy were practically inseparable in prep school. As of 2018 Lem Billings is 65 years (age at death) years old. [67], On May 28, 1981, Billings died in his sleep following a heart attack in his Manhattan apartment. As the then-Senator stepped up for his turn, Williams admired his body. "Lem was sixteen, and Jack was fifteen, when they met while working on the school yearbook at Choate School for Boys, the prestigious New England preparatory school located in Wallingford, Conn. From all accounts it was instant friendship. [48] Billings saw the President for the last time when they dined at the White House with Greta Garbo on November 13, 1963, nine days before the President's assassination in Dallas. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/661850801540d07650fabf52ced798bc30b638466ac906855c1e19da231d68b5.jpg. He sent one letter to Lem's mother addressed to the American Field Service PO Box in New York. I have no doubt the same was true in American upper-crust boarding schools in the single-sex days. Yesterday was Jack's birthday. Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. [37], Billings' role as "first friend" was assessed by many observers at the time and since. During the night of May 28, 1981almost two decades after JFK's untimely death - 65-year-old Lem Billings died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack. His book Jack and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship, from which the text of this slideshow is excerpted, was one of The Advocate's five best books of 2007. Billings had once told Bobby that when he died he wanted the pall-bearers to be members of Bobby's circle of young friends, whom he knew well and with whom he had done drugs. "[53] Though newspapers often mentioned Billings' attendance at major social events, they identified him either as the escort of a member of the Kennedy family or included him in a list of Kennedy friends. Deadline reported in 2018 that it was to be the basis for a forthcoming boipic as well. The parents who fear their 11-year-olds will be scarred for life by the graphic sex education lessons that Two Insulate Britain protesters are jailed for contempt of court after they defied a judge's orders not to 'Derek fights on, it makes me fall in love with him all over again:' Kate Garraway reveals there are days French authorities fear 'narco-tourists' could flock to Normandy beaches after 'more than two tonnes of Hopes for cervical cancer vaccine after trials in mice showed it reduced tumours 80 per cent of the time. ', One of Jack's five sisters, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, found it hard to describe her brother's relationship with Billings, once stating, 'It was a complete liberation of the spirit' for Jack, and that her brother was a 'complete liberated man when he was with Lem. 'It was very hard for him, but he wanted to do it and he stuck with it,' Lucretia added. William Lemp III died an untimely death of a heart attack at the age of 42. Kennedy was allegedly on the receiving end of oral sex. 'Our story is one of hope': Conjoined twins who made history as first EVER pair survive to separation As Charles Bronson faces a parole hearing on Monday Will Britain's most violent prisoner soon be painting Is this Britain's most despicable man? Billings was a longtime Kennedy family friend, working to preserve the slain president's legacy even after death. When the boy died at 4:19 a.m. Kennedy was clutching his little fingers. Both Jack and Lem were crazy about dogs and soon fell totally in love with little Dunker. Billings worked on the 1960 campaign, and then lived at the White House for long stretches of time, a room permanently set aside for his visits. myocardial infarction. Billings reportedly told Kennedy of his romantic intentions in prep school (JFK pictured chatting with Marilyn Monroe and Robert F Kennedy). "I'm sure he's already organizing everything in heaven so it will be completely ready for us with just the right Early American furniture, the right curtains, the right rugs, the right paintings," Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the president's sister, said in a eulogy. [68] He is buried in Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[69]. On school breaks, Jack often brought Billings home with him, sparking Joe Kennedy to complain to his wife, Rose, 'Do we have to have that q***r around all summer?'. Although Jack and Bobby were of different temperaments -- Jack, detached and cerebral, Bobby, intense and emotional -- Lem saw so much of Jack in Bobby. He once called Billings the 'chief f****t at Camelot.' Harvard University. Eunice Kennedy Shriver said, 'I'm sure he's already organizing everything in heaven so it will be completely ready for us -- with just the right Early American furniture, the right curtains, the right rugs, the right paintings, and everything ready for a big, big party. In addition to Lem, Kennedys bisexual brother in law, actor Peter Lawford, and novelist Gore Vidal, a relative of Jackies, were frequent visitors and playmates. While at Choate, they formed a club and called themselves "The Muckers". The story of Jack and Lem opens a window into the presidency, but it also suggests that historians of heterosexuality might want to look more closely to see which gay lives are lived near, but outside the conventional frame, of heterosexual families, a project that novelist Amy Bloom has recently undertaken in her fictional account of the love affair between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickock. To order a copy, click here. [44] "Jack made a big difference in my life," Billings said. Quirk had met Billings in the mid-Forties when both were volunteers in Jack Kennedy's first congressional campaign. Joe generously paid for half the cost of Lem's ticket on the way over, saying Lem could pay at least part of it back when he graduated from Princeton. ', Jacqueline Kennedy was reportedly unhappuabout her husband and Billings' three decade long relationship. Sprawling home where JonBenet Ramsey was found murdered in 1996 is listed for sale for $7 MILLION by current Royal Mail increase price of first class stamp by 15p to 1.10 in record-breaking hike. I dont buy it. Mid-1930s. [14] In 1958, he moved to the Manhattan advertising firm Lennen & Newell[15] as an advertising executive. "Jack and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship" Kennedy knew Billings was in love with him (Billings declared his love and was rejected by Kennedy) and Kennedy liked that, the attention and knowing the power he has over billings also his wife Jackie Kennedy hated Billings and hated that he and . Lem Billings Is JFK's 'Go-Between' During Courtship with Jackie as Imagined in New Novel PEOPLE has an exclusive first look at Louis Bayard's upcoming Jackie & Me By Sam Gillette Published on. (Page 100). Allegheny Cemetery. He was a beautiful baby," he ducked into a boiler room and wept. For Billings' funeral, some of the younger Kennedys served as pallbearers (as Billings himself had done for some of their own, like the slain Sen. Robert F. Kennedy). But as I began to research him, I realized he was also very good friends with Jackie. Lem Billings died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack on May 28, 1981, at the age of 65. Poor guy. But I'm stuck with the Kennedys emotionally, and I will be to the end of my life. "'Of course, there was always Cape Cod in Massachusetts when the president wanted to be near the water,' Lem remarked. Prince Andrew has 'offered to manage prestigious Royal estates including Balmoral but King Charles has told PLATELL'S PEOPLE: Yes, Madonna toyboys are fun but not if you value your dignity. Later accounts detailed how Billings had found himself adrift as a student at Choate in the wake of his father's death: "The Kennedys provided family and support and so forth," his nephew told Princeton University's alumni magazine in 2017. Bobby Kennedy Jr. read the eulogy. The biographer Sally Bedell Smith, referred to Billings in one of her books as 'probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows.'. Kirk LeMoyne Billings and John F. Kennedy. 73 Photos of Naturally Naked Men by Terry Hastings, 23 Masturbation Tips for People With Vaginas, 22 Terrifying Sexual Fantasies That Must Be Talked About, 30 Kinky Terms Every Gay Man Needs To Know, 10 Sex Toys for All Genders and How to Use Them, Alternative Orgasms: 20 New Ways to Hit the Spot, LGBTQ+ Rights Lawyer Shannon Minter's Home Hit by Tornado, 'First Deep Breath' Is a Moving Story of a Black Family & Queerness, Karine Jean-Pierre on Tennessee Anti-Drag Law: Unacceptable & Unfortunate, Texas GOP May Censure Congressman Over Support for Marriage Equality, 12 LGBTQ+ Films and TV Shows to Watch in March, The Dildo Nazi: Sex Toy-Selling White Supremacist Umasked, Lesbian Gov. In less than a year, the country would be at war." "[Billings] was a witness to so much of what was going on. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he sometimes acted as escort for several of the Kennedy women. A historian wrote that after Kennedy's assassination 50 years ago Billings was "probably the saddest of the Kennedy 'widows.'" Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. They met in 1933 in their sophomore year at Choate Rosemary Hall, the exclusive Connecticut prep school, when both were teenagers, working together on their class's yearbook, and Billings instantly became attracted sexually and otherwise to the handsome scion of America's self-styled royal family. ', Roommates: JFK and Billings (right) roomed atChoate and again atPrinceton (pictured mid-1930s outside a drugstore with roommate Ralph Horton Jr), JFK's sisterEunice Kennedy Shriver said his relationship with Billingswas a 'complete liberation of the spirit' for Jack (Pictured on their Christmas card with fellow Princeton roommateRalph Horton Jr), While her husband had his qualms about Billings and couldn't stand to have him around, the matriarch Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, had a different take. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings (April 15, 1916 - May 28, 1981) was a prep school roommate and then lifelong close friend of President John F. Kennedy (May 29, 1917 - November 22, 1963). Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings and Mary Lasker attend a party at the New York City home of Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. On June 14, 1977. "[27] Billings never had a White House pass and said: "Jack and Jackie were so nice about this that I didn't even have to tell them whether I was coming or going. I'm not that kind of boy.' According to the book, a gift from Billings a whale's-tooth scrimshaw was buried with him. "Depending upon where the lung cancer was, her heart could have taken a direct hit," said Dr. Sharonne N. Hayes, a cardiologist and founder of the Women's Heart Clinic at the Mayo Clinic. JFKs numerous affairs (before, during and after his marriage to Jackie) and his friendships with gay men suddenly had a social and cultural context that was neither gay or straight, but a harbinger of the sexual freedom and experimentation that would soon be championed in the counterculture and the mainstream. Kennedy first met Billings when they were teenagers at a school called Choate. [28] One presidential aide later said that "some people saw him so much they thought he was the Secret Service. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings was an American businessman known for his close and long-time friendship with John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family. As the previous article mentions more has to be explored regarding the relationship between Lem and JFK! The story about Lem Billings '39 and JFK was very interesting and even moving (cover story, April 12). 'Dear Mrs. Billings. (Page 64), Harry Dixon, Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy, John Coleman, Charlotte McDonnell, Jack and Lem, Palm Beach, Christmas 1940, "After his sojourn in Hollywood, Jack returned to the East Coast in time for the Christmas vacation period, during which he liked to spend time with his family and Lem. Although Alford refused, she did not always have the self-confidence to say no: earlier, she had fellated a staff member in Jacks presence. When Billings learned that the love of his life was dead on November 22, 1963, Pitts writes: It was as if he had been struck by lightning; he was consumed by grief. Lem was the second person Jacks sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, called after reaching her sister, Pat Lawford. It would go on to become one of his most prized possessions." Variability in proportionate mortality in 363 Latin American cities by country. Billings remarked (at the end of the story) that had he married and settled down, he would not have been happier than he was as . For many other Americans as well, Bobby became the last best hope for resurrecting Camelot, for a return to the kind of liberal idealism that Jack had epitomized. When JFK was assassinated, he turned his attention to his nephew Bobby Kennedy Jr. However, gay men played another role in Kennedys history that was not overtly sexual: they were part of an avant-garde cultural world that Jackie Kennedy cultivated, as she linked the Kennedy name to national arts, letters and music for the first time. We might even call it a romantic friendship. In 1958, her cousin Gore Vidal brought playwright Tennessee Williams to the Kennedy home in Palm Beach, FL. 'Haven't heard a word from you,' Jack wrote. The first time Kirk Lemoyne 'Lem' Billings was . In the epidemiological framework of the Global Burden of Disease study each death has one specific cause. [64], Billings' behavior changed drastically in the late 1960s. Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want to remind everyone of that today. Lem Billings may have been present for many of these events, but if he was, he was just outside the frame of these pictures. [30], The press frequently reported on his presence at Kennedy family events, such as the arrival of the Kennedy children in Washington in February 1961. But even more than that, the author said that Billings was intimate friends with the Kennedys despite societal norms of the time ingratiating himself with a most powerful family. David Pitts quotes Vidal cruelly calling Billings a lifelong slave, the principal fag at court, and a nurse who helped Jack deal with the pain caused by Addisons disease. Bobby's decision to pick up Jack's torch was important to Lem as well. [63][25]:505 He maintained close ties to the Kennedys and their children for the rest of his life, frequently socializing with Bobby Kennedy Jr., to whom he became almost a surrogate father, and Christopher Lawford. One of the most credible accounts of the Kennedy-Billings relationship was told by David Pitts, who I interviewed extensively for my book, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.And The Dark Side Of The Dream, because the strapping, bespectacled Billings, with a high-pitched, effeminate voice, would later become the fawning surrogate father and fellow drug user of JFK's nephew, Bobby Kennedy Jr., with whom Billings also had intense romantic feelings. But even before then, Billings was a Kennedy fixture. Lem felt that the physical regimen at the Kennedy vacation homes was even more exacting than that at Choate. 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Kennedy Anything Including Possible Affairs, oral history interview for the John F. Kennedy Library. But there is also an important story about race, and social class, to be told here. Witch, Harridan, Harpy, and new insults like Karen and Terf. The murder of Curtis Lemansky marked the beginning of the end for the Strike Team. "The agency, which was the 13th largest in the United States in 1971, went bankrupt the following year, listing almost $11 million in liabilities. While web sleuths and conspiracy theorists were looking for the person who killed her . We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Billings, for his part, never married and eventually became a marketing executive and worked on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
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