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To order a copy, click here. During the night of May 28, 1981-almost two decades after JFK's untimely death - 65-year-old Lem Billings died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack. 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. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. Kirk Lem Lemoyne Billings (15 Apr 1916 - 28 May 1981) 0 references . Jerry Oppenheimer is a New York Times bestselling author who has written two books about the Kennedys. He once called Billings the 'chief f****t at Camelot.' Copyright 20142023 The Editorial Board of Public Seminar, All Rights Reserved. During that time, he told researchers, "All the kids came over to see me. As the previous article mentions more has to be explored regarding the relationship between Lem and JFK! Lem Billings andBobby Kennedy Jr became close after JFK's death and allegedly took drugs together. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. Was this part of his commitment to the Presidents good health? Lem Billings relaxed on the Kennedys' Palm Beach estate the summer of 1936. This was at the end of their final presidential debate at Hofstra University in New York in October, 2008. Ted Sorensen called him "an admirer almost a fawning admirer of his friend. From the time John F. Kennedy and Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings met at Choate, until the President's assassination thirty years later, Jack and Lem remained best friends. [4], In 1939, Billings graduated from Princeton where he majored in art and architecture[5] and wrote his senior thesis on Tintoretto. [26] When the First Lady was away, Billings organized White House dinner parties for the President and old friends,[27] and when the President traveled he kept the First Lady company. "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 be the last Christmas in which the United States would be at peace for more than four years. place of burial. "[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. Allegheny Cemetery is one of the largest and oldest burial grounds in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When Jack reached home, the two friends greeted each other like there was no tomorrow." Needless to say, JFK may have had, in a sense, two widows. The evidence presented indicates that Jack found out . 'People think I'm a joke,' he once acknowledged. Have a nice one! 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). The biographer Sally Bedell Smith, referred to Billings in one of her books as 'probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows.'. I suppose if you dont do the missionary sex position thing you can call yourself straight and for any other position, it is just experimental straight sex? Naval Academy. From 1933 to 1946, Billings and JFK exchanged letters, with Jack often antagonizing Lem in the correspondence. A crew jock, he met Jack at Choate, a boys' boarding school, in Wallingford, Connecticut (it is now co-ed). Kennedy was allegedly on the receiving end of oral sex. "'Of course, there was always Cape Cod in Massachusetts when the president wanted to be near the water,' Lem remarked. 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). Billings, Lem (Kirk LeMoyne), 1916-1981. Bobby Kennedy Jr. read the eulogy. He escorted Mrs. Stephen Smith, sister of the late President, to . Lem Billings also buffered JFK from the toll that infidelity took on the Kennedy marriage. [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. And the White House itself seems to have been welcoming to other non-heteronormative men in the Kennedy years. The 51-year-old daughter of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died Sept. 16 while working out at her Washington, D.C., gym. But above all, Bobby was very important to Lem personally. 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 . 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). Born in 1916, Billings was the son of a Pittsburgh doctor. I have no doubt the same was true in American upper-crust boarding schools in the single-sex days. "Because of him, I was never lonely. "[21] In September 1961, he accepted an appointment to the board of trustees of the planned National Cultural Center, which later became the Kennedy Center. Billings was a longtime Kennedy family friend, working to preserve the slain president's legacy even after death. [9] He saw action in North Africa in 194243. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to receive selections from new issues of, what historian David K. Johnson calls the lavender scare, According to author Christopher Bram (2012), her fictional account of the love affair between Eleanor Roosevelt. The Kennedys tolerated his homosexuality, which was considered taboo at the time, Lawrence J. Quirk, the author of'The Kennedys in Hollywood' said Billings and JFK's relationship turned sexual at a point. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he sometimes acted as escort for several of the Kennedy women. The comments below have been moderated in advance. [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. Authorities have identified the woman found dead Tuesday in a residence on Avenue B in Billings as Shanna Lynn Booth. Lem was a virtual fixture in the Kennedy family who even had his own room at the White House. Now thats very exciting! said Kennedy with a grin.. He was a beautiful baby," he ducked into a boiler room and wept. I mean, I could have had a wife, and family, but what the hell -- do you think I would have had a better life having been Jack Kennedy's best friend, having been with him during so many moments of his presidency, having had my own room at the White House, having had the best friend anybody ever had, or having been married and settled down and living somewhere." With his political influence, Jack Daniels became a monopoly as the only legal whiskey distillery in 1947 in Tennessee. Article. "[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. And seated close to Kennedy is his shirtless, tanned and oiled best friend forever, his very gay chum, Kirk LeMoyne 'Lem' Billings. [64], Billings' behavior changed drastically in the late 1960s. As they became close, Billings confided that his relationship with Kennedy was, in fact, sexual, to a point. Although Jack and Bobby were of different temperaments -- Jack, detached and cerebral, Bobby, intense and emotional -- Lem saw so much of Jack in Bobby. "[41] At the same time, he admitted that no one ever expressed the idea aloud during Kennedy's White House years. Didnt Lem confess to a friend that he loved JFK? 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. [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. ", 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.". I don't know how we will carry on without him. Eventually, the two friends made contact, however, and began exchanging letters just as they had when both were at home." As of 2018 Lem Billings is 65 years (age at death) years old. Vessey paid Masters with meth and a vehicle in exchange for the death of Billings. He noted that everywhere Jack went, Billings was sure to follow, like a puppy dog. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/661850801540d07650fabf52ced798bc30b638466ac906855c1e19da231d68b5.jpg. 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. Lem's sister, Lucretia, who knew Jack as well, said, 'I think he had to do something because Jack was doing so much.' "Raffish and yet prissy," they write of Billings "a sort of court chronicler reporting on the old days which even Bobby and Ethel didn't recall and functioning as the all-purpose cheerleader, godfather, and pallbearer who could always be counted on. 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. To begin with, why would JFK give him a private room at the white house, to come and go at his leisure? [11], After working on Kennedy's successful campaign for Congress in 1946, Billings toured seven Latin American countries with Robert F. Sometimes Jack bitched Lem out one letter saying, "Of all the cheap shit I have. The first lady, Jackie, had something of a love-hate relationship with Billings. One reason is that, in retrospect, the Kennedy presidency provides a transition from the years of what historian David K. Johnson calls the lavender scare and the unbuttoned, experimental 1960s that launched the gay rights movement. Harvard University. On some weekends, Jack and Lem would go up there. They were especially fanatical about football. "[27] Arthur Schlesinger thought Billings "used to glare at me when we occasionally encountered each other in the company of JFK, and for a time I took this rather personally. (Page 24), Lem and Bobby, Waterville Valley, N.H., circa 1967"'When Bobby joined the political fray, no one was happier than Lem. He was by all accounts JFK's best friend . A historian wrote that after Kennedy's assassination 50 years ago Billings was "probably the saddest of the Kennedy 'widows.'" [24], Billings visited the White House for most weekends during the Kennedy Administration. Public Seminar is a journal of ideas, politics, and culture published by the Public Seminar Publishing Initiative at The New School. 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. "Because of him, I was never lonely," Billings said once. 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. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings (April 15, 1916 May 28, 1981) was an American businessman known for his close and long-time friendship with John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family. [63], Billings served for many years along with Sargent Shriver as a trustee for the Kennedy family trusts,[65] working from an office in the Pan Am Building. They always remembered him as the nicest German they ever met." In the epidemiological framework of the Global Burden of Disease study each death has one specific cause. 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. William Lemp III died an untimely death of a heart attack at the age of 42. While Billings' missive is long gone, a startled Kennedy responded, 'Please don't write to me on toilet paper anymore. 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 once told Bobby that. 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. JFK, or 'Jack' as he was known by his close friends and family, had a gay best friend named Lem Billings, who he met in prep school when Kennedy was 15 and Lem . Co-executive Editor, Public Seminar and Professor of History, The New School for Social Research, Photo credit: Cecil Stoughton/Wikimedia Commons. JFK's Best Friend Lem: Transcript. Kirk LeMoyne " Lem " Billings (April 15, 1916 - May 28, 1981) was an American businessman known for his close and long-time friendship with John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family. Because of him, I was never lonely, Billings said once. Billings took leave from his business career to work on Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign. As a younger man, he also served as something of a "go-between" for a young Jack Kennedy and the woman who would become Kennedy's wife, Jackie Bouvier, in 1950s Washington, D.C. (Page 80), Lem examines a damaged ambulance door following the Messerschmitt attack, Sirte, Libya, 1943. Historian Lois Banner has also provided details about Marilyn Monroes affair with JFK, one of numerous women procured for the President by Peter Lawford, who himself staged sexual orgies in Los Angeles that the President attended. 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). 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. Some of his partners saw the escape from monogamy as liberating too, understanding their romps with the President as special and carefree episodes that they were happy to flaunt. He sent one letter to Lem's mother addressed to the American Field Service PO Box in New York. In 1958, her cousin Gore Vidal brought playwright Tennessee Williams to the Kennedy home in Palm Beach, FL. In reference to this relationship, I came across another interview in which JFKs sexuality was discussed and that interviewer defended JFKs relationship with Lem? ", Matriarch Rose Kennedy wrote in her biography that Billings was "one of 'Jack's surprises,' " and soon found a place for himself: "He has really been part of 'our family' since that first time he showed up at our house. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Get that ass! he said to Vidal. The Kennedys were a liberal family and one that tolerated a lot of heterosexual promiscuity as well. Lem Billings is a member of famous Celebrity list. She needed Billings to keep the President company while she went horseback riding. 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? While web sleuths and conspiracy theorists were looking for the person who killed her . 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. 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. Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. Bobby's decision to pick up Jack's torch was important to Lem as well. He had interests of his own that Jack didn't necessarily share. [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. This essay was originally published at OutHistory.orgon November 22, 2013; it has been updated and re-edited. It impressed . . 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. (Page 276). (Note my reply) I think the interview I have reference to is less than a year ago! [64] Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis included Billings as a guest at a party marking the birthdays of her children Caroline (21st) and John Jr. (18th) in 1978. 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. Claire Potteris professor of history at The New School, and Executive Editor of Public Seminar. But the point of the picture is the grief any couple would feel at the loss of a much-wanted child. He helped handle even some of Jack's most personal affairs, Pitts writes in his book: "Jack's dates would be managed by Lem. 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. ', 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. 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. 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. It would go on to become one of his most prized possessions." I have been studying human sexuality for 25 years and am a Stanford grad and track athlete. The one iconic photo of President John F. Kennedy up close and personal with a woman other than Jackie shows him and his attorney general brother, Robert, coming on to curvaceous Marilyn Monroe at a party. Pamela Long Wiggins, who was convicted of accessory to murder after the fact in connection with the Billings murders, died Thursday in state prison. Kennedy later graduated from Harvard, but the pair wrote letters back and forth, spent weekends together in New York and traveled to Germany in the summer of 1937. 0 references. As Vice President at the Emerson Drug Company in Baltimore, he was responsible for inventing the 1950s fad drink Fizzies by adding a fruit flavor to disguise the sodium citrate taste. I'm enclosing a letter to Lem, which I wish you would forward, as I haven't any idea where he is. Between 1933 and 1935, The bond between Jack and Lem grew so tight, journalist David Pitts wrote in Jack and Lem (2008), that they really had no need for friendships with other boys.. Billings, he said, "had a natural jealousy. His mother was a Mayflower descendant and his great-grandfather Francis Julius LeMoyne was a prominent abolitionist linked to the underground railroad who helped establish what is today known as LeMoyne-Owen College. Describing his friend as a "very normal, regular boy," Billings said his favorite of Jack's characteristics was his light spirit: "I've never known anyone in my life with such a wonderful humor and the wonderful ability to make one laugh and to have a good time. Lem Billings Is JFK's 'Go-Between' During Courtship with Jackie as Imagined in New Novel, Robert McNamara's Son Craig Remembers Playing with JFK Jr. and Caroline Kennedy After JFK's Death, New Book Delves Into JFK's Charisma, Insatiable Affairs and His Last Moments with Baby Son Patrick, Author William Manchester Unmasks the Man Behind the Corncob Pipe: Macarthur, A Look Back at the Long List of Kennedy Family Tragedies, 'Without Any Warning, Mrs. Kennedy Begins Crying': Witness Remembers Jackie After the JFK Assassination, Jackie Kennedy's Sister Lee Radziwill Told Friend Truman Capote of Bitter Jealousy She Publicly Denied, Meet JFK's Alleged Mistresses and How Some Met Mysterious Ends, What to Know About Diana de Vegh, Who Says She Had an Affair with JFK When She Was 20, Jackie Kennedy Knew JFK Relationship Would Involve 'Heartbreak' & More Details from New Book, Marilyn Monroe 'Was Enamored of' JFK but 'Wasn't About to Break Up' His Marriage, Frank Sinatra's Friend Says, Why Ethel Kennedy Would Have Forgiven Robert F. Kennedy Anything Including Possible Affairs, oral history interview for the John F. Kennedy Library. What is most interesting to me is the relationship between sexual abuse and power and how idolized men in particular seem to some along with this inability/unwillingness to be kind.Lems story seems tragic, good material for a play or musical. He didn't want to share his friendship with Jack. He became Jackies confidant and the trusted recipient of her views about the other women who flitted in and out of her husbands life. Kennedys social intimacy with gay and bisexual men, and his comfort around homosexuality, is remarkable at a time when those friendships were stigmatizing and when gay and lesbian people were still prohibited from working on most federal jobs. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. Quirk had met Billings in the mid-Forties when both were volunteers in Jack Kennedy's first congressional campaign. 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. How remorseless Stephen Bear continued his arrogant antics up until Do not sell or share my personal information. The two had been friends since meeting as teenagers in prep school, and Billings even had his own room in the White House, but were they merely friends? 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. 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. [12], From 1946 to 1948, Billings attended Harvard Business School and earned an MBA. His name was Lem Billings. [20] He later said: "I realized that I did not want to work for the president because I felt it would change our relationship. You can follow her on Twitter . One famous shot shows the toddler John, Jr., a man who would also die tragically young, playing peek-a-boo under the desk. 'What the hell have you been doing? [16], On September 12, 1953, Billings was an usher at the wedding of Kennedy and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. 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. "[41] Gore Vidal, who was banned from the White House after a run-in with Billings,[42] was critical of Billings,[43] but also thought Billings played an important role as an aide to Kennedy, who was often ill or in pain. [10] In 1944 he received a commission in the U.S. According to the book, a gift from Billings a whale's-tooth scrimshaw was buried with him. Lem Billings (left) with John F Kennedy (right) Kennedy and Billings had a sexual relationship including 'oral sex, with Jack always on the receiving end.' Kennedys in Hollywood by Lawrence J. Quirk / The Dark Side Of The Dream As one source told me, 'Young Bobby replaced Jack in Lem's heart of hearts.'. Wiggins was serving a 28 years . He remained in the closet until his death in. Lem Billings may have been present for, but just outside the frame, of these pictures. In less than a year, the country would be at war." Billings repeated his senior year so that he and Kennedy could graduate from Choate together in 1935. 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. In addition, gay and lesbian people often have reasons for not coming out, or not seeking the liberation of living in queer communities, lives that are worth exploring for what we might learn about queer milieus that do not fit a conventional liberationist narrative. A telephone conversation between President Kennedy and Lem Billings. were sexual animals, and its hard for me to believe that a guy like Lem who loved JFK, would stand by and let himself be used and be rebuffed by JFK! "[44], Many testify to Billings' wit and ability to help the President relax. 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. Claire Potter is professor of history at The New School, and Executive Editor of Public Seminar. This is fascinating, Claire. He may have been the reason I never married.. Bobby Kennedy Jr. gave the eulogy. 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. Later Years. In 2009, Robert Dallek published part of an interview with Barbara Gamerekian, a former White House aide, who named three prominent women, two secretaries nicknamed Fiddle and Faddle and a college sophomore who couldnt type (Alford) as a few of the sexual partners who helped the President release his daily tensions, often in the White House swimming pool or on official trips around the nation, where women were sometimes flown in on separate planes so that they could be available.
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