Lem Billings may have been present for, but just outside the frame, of these pictures. From there we would helicopter right to his father's front lawn. With so many people looking for a relationship with him as he rose through the political ranks, there was one man who stood out as one of JFK's near-constant companions. President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas 50 years ago, leaving behind a mourning nation and his gay best friend, Lem Billings. In her memoir, Times To Remember, published eleven years after Jack's assassination in Dallas in 1963, she wrote that Billings had 'remained Jack's lifelong close friend, confidant, sharer in old memories and new experiencesHe has really been part of 'our family' since that first time he showed up at our house as one of 'Jack's surprises. ", So frequent a presence was he that Ted Kennedy, more than a decade younger than his brother Jack, said he "was 3 years old before it dawned on me that Lem wasn't one more older brother.". For example, in Once Upon a Secret (2012), former White House intern Mimi Alford describes a prolonged affair she had with Kennedy, beginning in the summer of 1962 when she was 19 and ending shortly before his assassination on November 22, 1963. She was expected to be constantly available for him, he was inconsiderate and unloving, and she was permitted to tell no one. A crew jock, he met Jack at Choate, a boys' boarding school, in Wallingford, Connecticut (it is now co-ed). 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. [68] His dying wish was for the young Kennedy men to carry his casket to its final resting place. The bond between Billings and John F. Kennedy continues to be of interest to many, with a new wave of attention cresting on social media apps like TikTok, where users have pored back over candid photos of the young men together. On some weekends, Jack and Lem would go up there. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he sometimes acted as escort for several of the Kennedy women. 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. Billings had been a prep school roommate of John F. Kennedy, an usher at his wedding, and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. And, say those close to him, Billings never, ever got over how his friend was assassinated one sunny day in Dallas exactly 58 years ago. (Page 24), Lem and Bobby, Waterville Valley, N.H., circa 1967"'When Bobby joined the political fray, no one was happier than Lem. place of burial. 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. While Billings' missive is long gone, a startled Kennedy responded, 'Please don't write to me on toilet paper anymore. However he does quote Billings admission that he may have been in love with Kennedy his whole life. [68] He is buried in Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[69]. Lem Billings and John F. Kennedy met as teenagers at their Connecticut prep school and remained lifelong friends. 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. The elder Kennedys began to discourage the boys from associating with Billings because of his excessive recreational drug use (including alcohol). [35] In 1962 he escorted two of the President's sisters, Eunice Shriver and Jean Kennedy Smith, around Europe for more than two weeks. Jackie and Vidal werent cousins. Those who knew Charles described him as a sour, angry man. 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. Knowing that, like many men who lived double lives, he could have had a wife and family, Billings regarded his friendship with Jack as a gift. He claimed he had no idea who the Kennedys were, but they wanted to meet Williams, and Vidal produced him. This may have been true of his wife, although perhaps she understood from the beginning that their marriage would be non-monogamous. "Because of him," Lem Billings once said of President Kennedy, "I was never lonely" Definitions: Cause of death vs risk factors. Like the rest of the free world, Billings was devastated when President Kennedy was assassinated. As the previous article mentions more has to be explored regarding the relationship between Lem and JFK! Both Jack and Lem were crazy about dogs and soon fell totally in love with little Dunker. Billings as a teenager was 6' 2", weighed 175 pounds, and was the strongest member of the Choate crew. Indeed, it often seems that Kennedy did treat people who loved him for granted. The affair was socially isolating for a very young and sexually un-liberated woman, causing her to deceive friends, boyfriends and ultimately her husband and children for most of her adult life. "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. it would not surprise me knowing how most of the Kennedys (including ole Joe!) The young Kennedys took the casket and carried it around the gravesite before returning it to the burial plot. When they arrived at the cemetery, it was already in place to be lowered. He didn't want to share his friendship with Jack. Needless to say, JFK may have had, in a sense, two widows. As the then-Senator stepped up for his turn, Williams admired his body. I'm enclosing a letter to Lem, which I wish you would forward, as I haven't any idea where he is. In less than a year, the country would be at war." But straight men can have a gay side, and JFKs life was filled with prominent gay men, friendships which open the door to other histories. At one point, he is said to have remarked: "After I go, there'll be no more Kennedys.". Featuring interviews with Ben Bradlee, Gore Vidal, Ted Sorenson, friends, family, and many others, award -- winning journalist David Pitts begins the story with the early friendship between the men. Now thats very exciting! said Kennedy with a grin.. Were Lem and Jack sexually intimate as well? myocardial infarction. (Page 35), Jack and Lem in a Palm Beach photo booth just before their European tour, 1937, "Jack and Lem's summer in Europe began on July 1, 1937. The two became friends, then roommates. (Note my reply) I think the interview I have reference to is less than a year ago! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/661850801540d07650fabf52ced798bc30b638466ac906855c1e19da231d68b5.jpg. As Billings' biographer David Pitts told me, 'Once JFK decided that Billings was his best friend like it or leave, everybody in the family sort of fell in line with that. Date (s) of Materials: 25 March 1964. A telephone conversation between President Kennedy and Lem Billings. The Kennedy Curse" Episode 205 -- Pictured: Grant Logan as JFK, Adam Cropper as Lem Billings -- John F. Kennedy, "Dunker" the dog, and Lem Billings at the Hague, during their Europe trip. "[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. Lem Billings had a remarkable friendship with JFK that lasted from 1932, when the two met as classmates in prep school, until JFK's assassination in 1963. Not just any member, either, he was an assassin and the leader of a Viet Cong death squad who had been targeting and killing South Vietnamese National Police officers and their families. I have no doubt the same was true in American upper-crust boarding schools in the single-sex days. 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.' Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want to remind everyone of that today. '"[39], Most recognized that Billings and Kennedy had been friends from youth and did not question their relationship or Billings' presence. 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?'. Billings once admitted that he made a pass at Jack early on. Billings was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 15, 1916, the third child of Frederic Tremaine Billings (18731933) and Romaine LeMoyne (18821970). It impressed . 'I would take the shuttle down to Washington, go to the White House and we would be picked up by helicopter there -- flown to Andrews (Air Force Base) and taken by Air Force One to Otis on the Cape. and yet you still think JFK was alive in December 1963! [60] In 1965, Jacqueline Kennedy invited Billings to accompany her and her children to England for the unveiling of a memorial to President Kennedy at Runnymede. [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. They werent even related. And all the while, Lem Billings was there: waiting, serving, comforting and helping the Kennedy family adjust to the public glare. 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. Like many gay men of his generation, Lem may have been very comfortable with his own sexuality and the privacy of his relationship to Jack. 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. While the photo of Kennedy cozying up to Monroe is the best known of him with one of his purported lovers, other far less public snapshots show the flip side of Kennedy's intimate relationships. Because of him, I was never lonely. Lem Billings also buffered JFK from the toll that infidelity took on the Kennedy marriage. 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. 'People think I'm a joke,' he once acknowledged. 'They make fun of my voice. 0 references. Born in 1916, he was the son of a Pittsburgh doctor. Still, Billings was viewed by many I interviewed for my biography of RFK Jr. as his gay Svengali who guided and literally tried to control every aspect of Bobby Jr.'s life from the time he was in his mid-teens. In Jackies absence, Lem managed the Presidents dinner parties, social life and children. 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. Could he have been the third leg of what was clearly an unconventional marriage? Though his name isn't as well-known as that of his boyhood best friend, Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings was an important confidante for one of America's presidents and lived a life no less full of its own twists and turns. 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. [50] In 2006, looking back to the Kennedy Administration, Ben Bradlee said: "I suppose it's known that Lem was gay.It impressed me that Jack had gay friends. Quirk immediately pegged Billings as gay, noting his 'high, screechy laugh,' and 'high nasal whine of a voice.' They always remembered him as the nicest German they ever met." He was a beautiful baby," he ducked into a boiler room and wept. But was reportedly upset that her husband spent so much time with him, and that he often stayed overnight at the White House. Pictures of the first family are typical of Cold War domestic norms: widely distributed before and after his death, these photographs show him as a conventional, heterosexual husband and a devoted father. 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. I don't think it's true that he did not have views of his own, as some have said. Jack and lem billings jfk Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings (April 15, 1916 - May 28, 1981) was a close friend of President John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family. The pair matriculated at Princeton together in the fall of 1935, although Jack had to withdraw for health reasons, probably early signs of the Addisons disease that would plague him the rest of his life. While trying to locate the body of a dead CI named Angie Stubbs, Lem stole a brick of heroin from Salvadoran drug dealer Pittario and warned him that he would only give it back once he located the body. Lem Billings andBobby Kennedy Jr became close after JFK's death and allegedly took drugs together. "[Billings] was a witness to so much of what was going on. After Jack Kennedy's election to the presidency, Billings was a constant presence and overnight guest at the White House. By the time he became president, however, that revolution had been launched: the birth control pill, developed in the 1950s, became widely available in the 1960s and, more importantly, in 1964, Life magazine would publish a major photo essay about gay mens bars in San Francisco. ', Their arrangement, Quirk asserted, 'enabled Jack to sustain his self-delusion that straight men who received oral sex from other males were really only straights looking for sexual release,' and he further observed, 'Jack was in love with Lem being in love with him and considered him the ideal follower adorer. In photos and excerpts from David Pitts's book Jack & Lem, we remember President John F. Kennedy through the lens of his lifelong friendship with Lem Billings. [28] One presidential aide later said that "some people saw him so much they thought he was the Secret Service. Billings had once told Bobby that. Description: In this interview, Billings discusses John F. Kennedy's time at Choate, his family life, and their first trip to Europe together, among other issues. "Because of him," Billings once said. (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. Poor guy. She needed Billings to keep the President company while she went horseback riding. During that time, he told researchers, "All the kids came over to see me. Lem's raison d'tre was Jack Kennedy. He believed Billings loved Kennedy. The biographer Sally Bedell Smith, referred to Billings in one of her books as 'probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows.'. William Lemp III died an untimely death of a heart attack at the age of 42. Access Restriction Status: Open. May I come inside?" Language: English Words: 1,469 . [67], On May 28, 1981, Billings died in his sleep following a heart attack in his Manhattan apartment. Billings repeated his senior year so that he and Kennedy could graduate from Choate together in 1935. Still, the Kennedy clan accepted even welcomed Lem Billings into their exclusive inner-circle, practically adopting him, and he became a part of the family. Billings had once told Bobby that. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. When JFK was assassinated, he turned his attention to his nephew Bobby Kennedy Jr. [17] In 1956 he was an usher at the wedding of Kennedy's sister Jean to Stephen Edward Smith. As we both know, homosexual relationships in English boarding schools were put down to adolescent hijinks and men *grew out of them*. 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. The two became friends, then roommates. A funny photo of Senator John McCain catching himself after he nearly left the stage in the wrong direction after shaking hands with Senator Barack Obama. Plastic surgeon reveals five cosmetic procedures she would NEVER get - from dangerous Brazilian butt lifts BEL MOONEY:Why does caring for my dad take over my life? It would go on to become one of his most prized possessions." They were especially fanatical about football. I dont buy it. (Page 53), Jack, Lem, and Dunker, the dog they bought on their European tour in 1937"Jack and Lem failed to make any friends in Germany, unlike in the other countries they visited, except one -- Dunker, a lovable Dachshund that they ran into on their way to Nuremberg. JFKs sex life, and his attachments to men, also needs to be better understood for what it reveals about his inner life, and for a moment in United States political history when sex itself was undergoing seismic changes. JFK appeared to be in love with the idea of Billings being in love with him. And he also played a very important role in the courtship between Jackie Bouvier and Jack Kennedy," Bayard told PEOPLE in an earlier interview about his book, which will be published by Algonquin Books in June. In their own words: 'each death is attributed to a single underlying cause the cause that initiated the series of . [51] Red Fay, a friend of the President from his World War II service, said of Billings: "I didn't see anything overtly gay about him; I think he was neutral. "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.". Ironically, Motlow, who had sustained a stroke in 1940, died that same year . Pamela Long Wiggins, who was convicted of accessory to murder after the fact in connection with the Billings murders, died Thursday in state prison. His father was a prominent physician and a graduate of the U.S. Like millions of other young Americans, they faced an uncertain future. Advocate Contributors November 22 2013 4:00 AM EST In photos. . [14] In 1958, he moved to the Manhattan advertising firm Lennen & Newell[15] as an advertising executive. John F. Kennedy bi-sexual or gay? He may have been the reason I never got married. After finding the body and returning the heroin . [44] "Jack made a big difference in my life," Billings said. JFK's Best Friend Lem: Transcript. [9] He saw action in North Africa in 194243. At least one of these intimates, Kirk LeMoyne Lem Billings, was one of Jacks cherished body men, and he lived part-time in the White House throughout the three years of Kennedys presidency. Anyone who wants to know more about JFKs actual sex life can email me at tim.a.nicholson@gmail.com Here is my sons grandfather with JFK in Dec 1963. A Catholic couple, the Kennedys hoped for more children: Jack had been one of nine, while Bobby and Ethel Kennedy had eleven. In many ways, Kennedy was also enjoying the kind of sex life that would later characterize the gay mens party of the 1970s. "Because of him, I was never lonely," Billings said once. In reference to this relationship, I came across another interview in which JFKs sexuality was discussed and that interviewer defended JFKs relationship with Lem? Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. ', Jacqueline Kennedy was reportedly unhappuabout her husband and Billings' three decade long relationship. Lem Billings died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack on May 28, 1981, at the age of 65. They soon began spiraling toward their eventual demise. 'What the hell have you been doing? Have a nice one! [55] Kennedy knew that homosexual behavior on the part of Billings had been revealed by a fellow Choate student during their years there. [54] Billings had his own room in the White House. "Early on in their friendship, Lem sent Jack such a note and Jack replied in their usual jocular way, adding in parentheses, 'Please don't write to me on toilet paper any more. Billings, for his part, never married and eventually became a marketing executive and worked on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Jack & Lem: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship, John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings by David Pitts Carroll & Graf. He was also plagued by ill health. In "Jack and Lem", author David Pitts looks at the relationship between the late president and Kirk LeMoyne Billings or "Lem". Lem felt that the physical regimen at the Kennedy vacation homes was even more exacting than that at Choate. It is important to understand what is meant by the cause of death and the risk factor associated with a premature death:. Release of Secret JFK Assassination Records Delayed by Biden, Angering Some of the Kennedys. 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. [16], On September 12, 1953, Billings was an usher at the wedding of Kennedy and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. In the summer of 1937 Billings and Kennedy took a summer trip through Europe which solidified their friendship. He escorted Mrs. Stephen Smith, sister of the late President, to . In a third, the President is walking on the beach with the late Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, as they grieved the death of their premature son Patrick. Co-executive Editor, Public Seminar and Professor of History, The New School for Social Research, Photo credit: Cecil Stoughton/Wikimedia Commons. I'd read a bit about Lem Billings in various Kennedy bios . [64], Billings' behavior changed drastically in the late 1960s. Naval Reserve and served in the South Pacific until being discharged in 1946. 'It was very hard for him, but he wanted to do it and he stuck with it,' Lucretia added. 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. (Page 4), "When Jack wasn't trying to get Lem to sing on family occasions, he was cajoling him into playing sports -- usually touch football, a game Lem came to loathe. . [13] He later had several jobs, including selling Coca-Cola dispensers to drugstores and working at a General Shoe store. Vessey paid Masters with meth and a vehicle in exchange for the death of Billings. They remained close until Kennedy's assassinationBillings had his own room in the White House, and Joe Kennedy Sr. called him "a second son." (Which is odd considering JFK . "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. Lem Billings is a well known Celebrity. He once called Billings the 'chief f****t at Camelot.' Billings was so much a part of the extended Kennedy clan that he was regularly included in family gatherings, and Attorney General Robert Bobby Kennedy named his son Michael LeMoyne Kennedy. [4], Some historians believe that Billings expressed his sexual interest in Kennedy in writing in 1934 and that Kennedy rebuffed his advances. You can follow her on Twitter. Our most accurate accounts of JFKs emotional carelessness are not from Lem, who was loyal to his friend until his death, but from women who later came forward about affairs that now, in the era of #MeToo, sometimes raise harsh questions about whether some of these relationships were abusive. (Page 276). Lemmon died about 9 p.m. Wednesday at USC/Norris Cancer Center with his wife, actress Felicia Farr, two children and a stepdaughter at his bedside. [3] They became fast friends, drawn to each other by their mutual distaste for their strict school. [6][7], In 1941, Billings failed medical tests required by the military. Mom who lost both sons to fentanyl blasts laughing Biden, Two Russian tanks annihilated with bombs by Ukrainian armed forces, Isabel Oakeshott receives 'menacing' message from Matt Hancock, Pavement where disabled woman gestured at cyclist before fatal crash, Pro-Ukrainian drone lands on Russian spy planes exposing location, 'Buster is next!'

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