Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he . 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. A Princeton friend and former business partner confided to Pitts about Billings that after Jack's death: "He didn't want to live anymore," and other friends claimed that he never recovered from the loss. According to Quirk, Billings revealed that his friendship with the future president of the United States 'included oral sex, with Jack always on the receiving end. John F. Kennedy and Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billingsmet in 1933 as sophomoresat Choate Rosemary Hall, a Connecticut prep school where they worked on their class yearbook together. 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? Billings Funeral Home, in Elkhart IN, offers personalized and compassionate service for everyone who walks through our doors. 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. Advocate Contributors November 22 2013 4:00 AM EST In photos. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. 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. through his life. Extent: 82 digital pages. JAMIE RICHARDSON: John F. Kennedy had no shortage of people who considered themselves friends of the 35th president. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. However, Kennedy's feelings soon changed and he became more amenable to his friend's advances, according to Lawrence J. Quirk, author of The Kennedys in Hollywood, who first met Billings in the mid-forties when both were volunteers in Jack Kennedy's first congressional campaign. He's gone. Billings had once told Bobby that when. As one source told me, 'Young Bobby replaced Jack in Lem's heart of hearts.'. They both took drugs. In what was later viewed as a twisted relationship, Billings was pumping up Bobby for a high political future at the same time he was sharing drugs with him, from marijuana to heroin through their years together. While on the road, the only person he touched base with was Lem Billings. The first lady, Jackie, had something of a love-hate relationship with Billings. They adopted a little Bobby finally earned his high school diploma in June 1972 at the experimental and alternative Palfrey Street School, in the Boston suburb of Watertown, where he arrived 'wearing dirty, faded jeans, smelling like patchouli oil,' recalled classmate John Cuetera, who became a psychologist. In 1941, Jack and Lem both tried out for the military but were both declined, , How old was the Queen when she met JFK? 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?". He once called Billings the 'chief f****t at Camelot.' 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. Just a week after his father's funeral, at his brother David's thirteenth birthday party at a grim Hickory Hill, Bobby had spiked everyone's milk with a laxative. David Pitts, author of 'Jack and Lem: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship'said Lem was a gay man and he had a 14-year-old, good-looking kid living in his house with him and there have been rumors because of that. A unique and lasting tribute for a . The book "Jack and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship," details the extraordinary relationship between two unlikely friends. lifelong close friend of President John F. Kennedy. Cherrydale? In the early spring of 1971, Bobby was being carefully watched by the administration because of drugs. 'We had a couple of calls from Jackie - "How's my nephew doing?" 'Ethel never had any contact about her son. When JFK was assassinated, he turned his attention to his nephew Bobby Kennedy Jr. We have 2 volunteers within fifty miles of your requested photo location. President John F. Kennedy may have had an intimate relationship with a gay friend from his prep school days, claims bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer, who has written two books about the Kennedys. Her main concern was that he be on time for dinner. Then she leans toward Jack and, in a whisper stagy enough for me to hear, says, "I like your friend.". . The family went back Quirk had met Billings in the mid-Forties when both were volunteers in Jack Kennedy's first congressional campaign. ISBN: 0306816237 ISBN13: 9780306816239 Jack and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship by David Pitts See Customer Reviews Select Format Hardcover $22.29 - $25.49 Paperback $12.09 - $19.04 Select Condition Like New -- Very Good Unavailable Good $12.09 Acceptable Unavailable New $19.04 When he was in his late 20s, he'd be arrested for heroin possession, after overdoing on an airplane flight, on his way to get help for his addiction. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Ken Bruce finishes his 30-year tenure as host of BBC Radio 2, Moment teenager crashes into back of lorry after 100mph police race, Alex Murdaugh unanimously found GUILTY of murder of wife and son, Isabel Oakeshott clashes with Nick Robinson over Hancock texts, Family of a 10-month-old baby filmed vaping open up, Ukrainian soldier takes out five tanks with Javelin missiles. Mr. Billings and Mr. Kennedy were roommates at Choate and then at Princeton before Mr. Kennedy transferred to Harvard. Billings, who was a year older than Jack Kennedy, made his desire known while the two were still at Choate in a bizarre love note, penned on a piece of toilet paper that could be disposed of easily to avoid incrimination at a time when homosexuality was illicit. RELATED VIDEO: Carly Simon Opens Up on Unlikely Friendship with Jackie Kennedy and Jackie's Thoughts on JFK, Aristotle Onassis & More, By now, of course, I'm extricating myself from the front of the car and inserting myself with no great grace into the back, and the operation is so consuming that, for a second or two, I lose all consciousness of her, and then I hear her sayin that voice, like a ghost whispering through the pipes"You must be Lem.". Introduction: My name is Rubie Ullrich, I am a enthusiastic, perfect, tender, vivacious, talented, famous, delightful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you. Jackie was reportedly upset that her husband spent so much time with Billings and that he often spent the night at the White House. Find the obituary of Lem Speer (1928 - 2021) from Billings, MT. Miss Bouvier is a destination. If we had made that very different choice, we would've gone down a completely different road. 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. Meadowrockalpacas is a website that writes about many topics of interest to you, a blog that shares knowledge and insights useful to everyone in many fields. The piece featured here was a gift from Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings, a high school friend and lifelong confidant who helped Kennedy amass his scrimshaw collection, which included more than 30 . Lem was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1916 Wright said he never heard from Bobby's mother after the decision was made to boot her son. 'There was no gnashing of teeth and sobbing in the context of his leaving. The enthusiastic pre-adolescent regaled Billings - a New York advertising executive, one of John F. Kennedy's closest confidantes and a closeted homosexual - with stories about his pet collection. ', 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. Ambassador to France under JFK, were hauled into juvenile court in the town of Barnstable on Cape Cod on charges of marijuana possession. How chilly it is for March. By easy degrees, she turns around and bestows on me a fuller version of that first smile. Only a very liberal school [like Pomfret] that needed money would take him.'. It was pretty clear he had some intravenous drug use back then, and he was the only person we knew who did.'. Born 15 Apr 1916 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, United States. Photo / Getty Images. Click to browse the Lem Billings Personal Papers KLBPP-001-003-p0015. Getty Images Billings, for his part, never married and eventually became a marketing executive and worked on the John F. Kennedy Center for the. 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. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. He truly loved the Kennedy's and as Jack's best friend. Billings enthused to RFK and Ethel in his high-pitched voice, which RFK made fun of behind his back. Everything involving Bobby had to go through Billings. He is survived by a brother, Dr. F. Tremayne Billings, and a sister, Lucretia Billings Fisher. Jerry Oppenheimer For Dailymail.com ', The Kennedy patriarch, Joe, a noted philanderer himself, was suspicious of Billings' sexual preference from the start of his son's close friendship with him. 'But Bobby was doing a little more than some of the rest of us - a little more and maybe harder stuff than the rest of us.'. But the man married to Jackie Kennedy was quietly chided for his compulsive philandering. Gore Vidal, the writer who claimed he viewed homosexuality as normal as heterosexuality, disparaged the JFK-Billings relationship during the Kennedy administration. "They make fun of my voice. After Jack Kennedy's election to the presidency, Billings was a constant presence and overnight guest at the White House. Young Bobby replaced Jack in Lem's heart of hearts, one source told Oppenheimer, who is the author of the book Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And The Dark Side Of The Dream. A different side of JFK: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings met atChoate Rosemary Hall and became lifelong friends. Quirk immediately pegged Billings as gay, noting his "high, screechy laugh," and "high nasal whine of a voice.". It only got worse with the drugs. Initially, Bobby's dorm room with his first roommate had become a veritable shrine to Bobby's father. 'We'd have these conversations in our room at night, lying there before we'd fall asleep [Bobby on the top bunk, Fanning on the lower], and he told me that when you go to somebody's house always ask to use the bathroom and check in their medicine cabinet because they always have good pills that you can steal. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., David Kenne. 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. Then, when Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, his wife Ethel Skakel had Billings act as the surrogate father to her son Bobby Jr. Keep reading for an exclusive excerpt from Jackie & Me. Billings reportedly wrote the future president a love note on a piece of toilet paper (pictured at the Kennedys' Palm Beach estate), JFK was famous for his womanizing habits, but one of his closest relationships was withLem Billings. The Funeral Home and/or Cemeterys policy is to NOT reproduce any copyrighted or other proprietary materials without verification from the User that they have the lawful right and/or authority to use. Quirk claims he first met Billings at Kennedys first congressional campaignand, as they became closer, he says Billings claimed that his relationship with Kennedy was sexual. to Frederic Tremaine Billings, a prominent physician and Romaine LeMoyne (direct ", "I thought, 'What a great cat-bird seat he would've had, and wouldn't he make a great narrator?' Terrien had been RFK's roommate at Harvard and later at the University of Virginia Law School, and he was particularly upset about what he saw clearly as Billings's growing infatuation with young Bobby. I can't even tell. the bond between Billings and Kennedy became so strong that Billings stayed back None of it came as a surprise to his roommate, Fanning. Love Irish history? Her moods could swing drastically. In June 1961, just months after Kennedy began his presidential term, he and Jackie visited Buckingham Palace, where a black tie banquet was hosted in the President's honour. As they became close, Billings confided that his relationship with Kennedy was, in fact, sexual, to a point. 'He played with Bobby, if you will, more than a father probably would, was just devoted to him, and there was reallyl honest affection between them.'. mutual distaste for their school and its headmaster, Seymour St. John. Lem had several jobs including selling Coca-Cola dispensers to drugstores, working A falconer, Bobby kept a pigeon-size sparrow hawk that flew loose in the small room. Queer question. Extent: 82 digital pages Collection: Billings said. He passed away peacefully at home February. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom was unable to personally travel to Kennedy's funeral because of her pregnancy with Prince Edward but later described "the unprecedented intensity of that wave of grief, mixed with something akin to despair, which swept over our people at the news of President Kennedy's Jacqueline Bouvier and U.S. Representative John F. Kennedy belonged to the same social circle and were formally introduced by a mutual friend, journalist Charles L. Bartlett, at a dinner party in May 1952. President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas 50 years ago, leaving behind a mourning nation and his gay best friend, Lem Billings. . Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. /. Given that Billings was a heavy-drinking Lem Billings, from a distinguished old American Protestant family, was taller, bigger, stronger, with a high-pitched voice and a loud laugh. Enter your email below to have our funeral service notifications delivered to you. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Jack and Lem explores the enduring friendship between John F. Kennedy and Kirk Lemoyne Billings (aka "Lem"). 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. In the summer of 1934, future United States president John F Kennedy was in his junior year at the prestigious Choate School in Connecticut. "I loved the idea of Lem being the go-between for the two lovers and being broker for Jack but also a confidante for Jackie," he says. It was he, not Ethel, who handled all of Bobby's expenses 'He would come over fairly frequently for dinner whenever he was in town,' she recalled. And seated close to Kennedy is his shirtless, tanned and oiled best friend forever, his very gay chum, Kirk LeMoyne 'Lem' Billings. The pair had a three-decades long friendship that some have speculated may have also included a romantic affair. 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.' According to Palfrey classmates, it was claimed that Bobby simply wrote his name - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - at the top and sent it in, and got accepted. While the 35th president has been legendarily known as a womanizer who frequently cheated on his wife, Oppenheimer alleges that JFK's three-decades-long relationship with his former prep school. What happened when Jackie Kennedy and Queen Elizabeth II met? Of course, that gave most ofus the thought - does this guy have a job other than caring for Bobby? Gore Vidal, the writer who claimed he viewed homosexuality as normal as heterosexuality, disparaged the JFK-Billings relationship during the Kennedy administration. Bobby Kennedy Jr. read the eulogy. Share your favorite stories with other history buffs in the IrishCentral History Facebook group. John F. Kennedy and Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings met in 1933 as sophomores at Choate Rosemary Hall, a Connecticut prep school where they worked on their class yearbook together. As for Kennedy himself, Vidal asserted that the president "felt quite comfortable in the company of homosexuals as long as they were smart enough to hold his interest.". She saw that Lem Billings was obsessively devoted to Bobby. Biographer Sally Bedell Smith referred to Billings as probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows., RELATED:Details About Kristen Stewarts Fiance Dylan Meyers & Their Adorably Casual Proposal. Reviews: 95% of readers found this page helpful, Address: 743 Stoltenberg Center, Genovevaville, NJ 59925-3119, Hobby: Surfing, Sailing, Listening to music, Web surfing, Kitesurfing, Geocaching, Backpacking. Jack Johns. The business was started in 1956 by Robert G. Michelotti and John F. Sawyers. '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, he said. When their brother Bobby married Ethel Skakel in a royal-like wedding in Greenwich, Connecticut, the staunchly conservative republican and seemingly homophobic Skakels let their feelings about Billings' gayness be known. 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. After Jack Kennedy's election to the presidency, Billings was a constant presence and overnight guest at the White House. "Will we be chauffeuring her fianc, too? 'He almost did things to shock you on purposeIt was a pretty dark, grim time; he was miserable and he was angry. of 1 The Kennedy patriarch, Joe, a noted philanderer himself, was suspicious of Billings' sexual preference from the start of his son's close friendship with him. I understand he's not worth it.". For Billings, a year older than the future president, it was love at first sight and from the instant they met Billings was sexually attracted to the handsome scion of America's so-called royal family. 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 . Beyond the senator, young Bobby's aunt Jackie had inquired about his welfare but never visited.'. During their wedding in Greenwich, Connecticut, Ethels brother knocked Billings down the aisle at the church. education of free black Americans after the Confederate States of America was What if Jacqueline Bouvier had chosen differently? 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. I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity.]. Bobby left home with $600, and traveled to California, sometimes riding the rails, and ended up in Berkeley where he bought drugs with money he panhandled. Irked, Joe Kennedy would sneeringly ask his wife, Rose, 'Do we have to have that queer around all summer? He was by all accounts JFK's best. 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. Hidden away high up on a bookshelf was a small bronze bust of his father. 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. Because Jack had no intention of ever being a faithful husband. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. All in all, there's a certain relief in being able to retreat into the Crestline's back seat. The Brodes friends included a number of gay men, among them such openly gay politicians as Barney Frank and Gerry Stuuds. 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. While Lem Billings was an actual Kennedy intimate, narrator Lem is reminiscent of The Great Gatsby's Nick Carraway, and his fictional reminiscences structure the novel around the triangular friendship he shares with Jack and Jackie in the years leading up to their wedding in the early 1950s. Quirk claims Billings would later confide in him that his relationship with Kennedy was sexual, to a point, and included oral sex, with Jack always on the receiving end., Their arrangement, Quirk says, 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, Jack was in love with Lem being in love with him and considered him the ideal follower adorer.. The funeral will be held in Pittsburgh. According to one of the school's leading administrators and teachers, Hagop Merjian, Bobby was doing, as he put it, 'Really bad, s**t drugs heavy s**t'. Lem Billings relaxed on the Kennedys' Palm Beach estate the summer of 1936. The first time Kirk Lemoyne 'Lem' Billings was introduced to Bobby Kennedy Jr. the two spent several hours alone in the boy's room at fabled Hickory Hill, Robert and Ethel Kennedy's historic,. But by the time he was with his second roommate, Jamie Fanning, the room had just a few photos, and hippie posters had replaced the funereal black sheets. 14:55 EDT 13 Oct 2015. With "Jack and Lem," Pitts has indeed turned over a new stone. The result is a meditation on the definitions . In his heartfelt and rather candid eulogy, Bobby 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. He noted that everywhere Jack went, Billings was sure to follow, like a puppy dog. From Algonquin Books. It was Bobby Kennedy Jr. who gave the eulogy. By clicking on a service below, you can view the obituary and service details, leave a condolence, send flowers, and if requested by the family attend a service live with remote attendance or view the . By the middle of Bobby's second year at Millbrook, around January 1970, he was placed on a secret short list of students considered too difficult to remain enrolled. After the assassination of RFK in 1968, the flamboyant Billings transferred his obsessive affection for Jack, to handsome teenager Bobby Jr. David Pitts, the author of 'Jack and Lem: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship,' told me, 'Lem was a gay man and he had a 14-year-old, good-looking kid living in his house with him and there had been rumors because of that. I will stand by him. Although there have been several rumors throughout the decades of JFK being romantically involved with Marilyn Monroe, the former president has also faced rumors of a relationship withhis gay best friend Lem Billings. All Rights Reserved. I still to this day see him standing there in his black necktie that he wore every day over a blue oxford Brooks Brothers shirt and a beat-up tweed jacket, and wearing the wildest bell-bottoms that were purple with Day-Glo green stripes like he was some soul band guy, and in his funky boots. ', Another classmate, Brian Carroll, remembered 'this odd character' Billings, who was always on campus fawning over Bobby: '"Bobby, are you eating? While Billings' missive is long gone, a startled Kennedy responded, 'Please don't write to me on toilet paper anymore. 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Lem Chesmore is a 34-year-old Billings native who grew up on the sport of boxing, first competing in 1980 at the Boys and Girls Club located on South 28th Street. Naval Reserve and served in the South Pacific eventually The president was famously believed to have affairs during their marriage. 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. Kirk LeMoyne Billings was Jack's very best friend from their time at Choate prep school in 1933 to that fateful day in Dallas 1963. ', But Billings was embarrassed about his effeminate mannerisms he'd remain publicly closeted for his lifetime. 228. Monroe and JFK were first introduced in 1954 by Peter Lawford, JFK's brother-in-law. . 11:10 EDT 13 Oct 2015 After it was all over, Bobby left home with $600, and traveled to California, sometimes riding the rails, and ended up in Berkeley where he bought drugs with money he panhandled. ', Jacqueline Kennedy was reportedly unhappuabout her husband and Billings' three decade long relationship. Billings Funeral Home - Woodward Add Photos Add a Memory Henry Leroy Ray Henry Leroy Ray Woodward - Henry was born June 11,1955 in Amarillo TX. If you need a funeral home you can trust, call today. he's stoned." Kirk Lemoyne Billings Memorial Page. Mr. Billings was active in all of John Kennedy's campaigns as well as those of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. by the end of his own lifetime he would have been described as gay. (See below for an exclusive excerpt.). Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you. '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.
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