Though Billings who was working as a New York City advertising executive at the time of the assassination continued on at his firm for another decade, his life was never the same. Soon I discovered that he glared with equal suspicion at anyone whose friendship with JFK postdated his own. Billings would later spend nights in the White House where he had his own room, Schoolboy crush? We are no longer accepting comments on this article. "[38] Another said: "Members of the president's staff thought of him as a 'handy old piece of furniture. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Ken Bruce finishes his 30-year tenure as host of BBC Radio 2, Missing hiker buried under snow forces arm out to wave to helicopter, Hershey's Canada releases HER for SHE bars featuring a trans activist, Insane moment river of rocks falls onto Malibu Canyon in CA, Fleet-footed cop chases an offender riding a scooter, Family of a 10-month-old baby filmed vaping open up. 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Vidal, the author of a best-selling gay World War II novel, published in 1947 at a time when most queer books were ruled obscene and evidence of homosexual acts could bring a prison term, was unabashedly public about his affairs with men. "[45] Billings also served the President as an artistic adviser, selecting scrimshaw for display in the Oval Office[46] and, on one European tour, quickly assembling a selection of artworks to be presented as gifts. They werent even related. A historian wrote that after Kennedy's assassination 50 years ago Billings was "probably the saddest of the Kennedy 'widows.'" He claimed he had no idea who the Kennedys were, but they wanted to meet Williams, and Vidal produced him. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. In reference to this relationship, I came across another interview in which JFKs sexuality was discussed and that interviewer defended JFKs relationship with Lem? Billings kept the letters JFK wrote to him between 1934 and 1939, and he donated the entire collection to the Library in the 1970s. Yesterday was Jack's birthday. He had clearly been adopted into the larger Kennedy clan, and Jackie drew him into her family circle as well. 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. it would not surprise me knowing how most of the Kennedys (including ole Joe!) As Billings told researchers for an oral history interview for the John F. Kennedy Library, the two met as teenagers at Choate Preparatory School for boys in Wallingford, Connecticut, in 1933, while working on the student yearbook. [1] The Billings family were Episcopalians and Republicans.[2]. The president was famously believed to have affairs during their marriage. Advocate Contributors November 22 2013 4:00 AM EST In photos. [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. Later Years. 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. 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. Major Character Death; John F Kennedy/ Lem Billings; John F. Kennedy; Lem Billings; Friends to Lovers; Hurt/Comfort; Summary. With that out of the way, their relationship continued essentially unchanged until JFK's assassination thirty years later.". In the fictionalAmerican Adulterer (2009), novelist Jed Mercurio s imagines a Kennedy who believes that ejaculating several times a day was crucial to maintaining good health and mental alertness, a form of self-care and that controlled his attacks of Addisons Disease by preventing seminal fluid from backing up into his body. Indeed, it often seems that Kennedy did treat people who loved him for granted. "I just became fascinated with Lem because he was a closeted but as they used to say 'practicing homosexual,' and he was very much part of the inner Kennedy circle from very early in his life," Bayard said. 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. Lem felt that the physical regimen at the Kennedy vacation homes was even more exacting than that at Choate. Could he have been the third leg of what was clearly an unconventional marriage? According to Pitts, Billings never recovered from the death of his friend, suffering from a "deep depression" in the weeks and months after President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. Lem Chesmore is a 34-year-old Billings native who grew up on the sport. It remains the worst such failure in the history of advertising agencies. Although Alford refused, she did not always have the self-confidence to say no: earlier, she had fellated a staff member in Jacks presence. 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. '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. 12 pdf icon; leading cause of death data, including firearm, homicide, and drug poisoning mortality data, and infant mortality . He was a beautiful baby," he ducked into a boiler room and wept. Lem Billings and John F. Kennedy met as teenagers at their Connecticut prep school and remained lifelong friends. 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. Variability in proportionate mortality in 363 Latin American cities by country. 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. Billings, Lem (Kirk LeMoyne), 1916-1981. I dont buy it. The two became friends, then roommates. 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. Otherwise he attended without female accompaniment. 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. 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. 64, No. 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? And seated close to Kennedy is his shirtless, tanned and oiled best friend forever, his very gay chum, Kirk LeMoyne 'Lem' Billings. A Princeton friend and former business partner confided to Pitts about Billings that after Jacks death: He didnt want to live anymore, and other friends claimed that he never recovered from the loss. I have been studying human sexuality for 25 years and am a Stanford grad and track athlete. 0 references. 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. The Cold War was still raging, and there was fear Russian agents might use the friendship against Kennedy. Eventually, the two friends made contact, however, and began exchanging letters just as they had when both were at home." 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. About Lem Billings A long time best friend and alleged secret Gay lover of President JFK and later a surrogate father for Robert Kennedy Jr. after the murder of his father. In 1965, Mrs. Kennedy invited Billings to accompany her and her children to England for the unveiling of a memorial to Kennedy at Runnymede. [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. "[52] One historian wrote that after the 1963 assassination Billings was: "probably the saddest of the Kennedy 'widows'. 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. Billings was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 15, 1916, the third child of Frederic Tremaine Billings (18731933) and Romaine LeMoyne (18821970). The murder of Curtis Lemansky marked the beginning of the end for the Strike Team. (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. 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. 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. . Of course, he had always loved the Cape and was completely happy there.'" In the epidemiological framework of the Global Burden of Disease study each death has one specific cause. 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). 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. But was reportedly upset that her husband spent so much time with him, and that he often stayed overnight at the White House. When the boy died at 4:19 a.m. Kennedy was clutching his little fingers. He managed the campaign in the Third Congressional District in the Wisconsin primary and then served as general troubleshooter and coordinator of television in the West Virginia primary. After finding the body and returning the heroin . But the point of the picture is the grief any couple would feel at the loss of a much-wanted child. The year also brought a staggering . Harvard University. 228. [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. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he sometimes acted as escort for several of the Kennedy women. Felicia Farr m. 19622001 Cynthia Stone m. 19501956 Jack Lemmon / Wife He was 76. Billings, a 16-year-old third-year student, and Kennedy, a 15-year-old second-year student, met at Choate, an elite preparatory school, in the fall of 1933. 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. 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. [4] Billings' first visit with the Kennedy family was for Christmas in Palm Beach in 1933, after that, he joined them for holidays, participated in family events, and was treated like a member of the family. 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. [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. "[58] Though Gore Vidal thought Billings was "absolutely nobody," he also believed "it was a good idea that Jack had somebody he could trust like that around him." 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. He remained in the closet until his death in. And George Terrian, the alcoholic husband of Ethel Kennedy's alcoholic, pill-popping sister, Georgeann, told me in interviews for my book 'The Other Mrs. Kennedy' that, 'Everyone in the family knew Lem was q***r the Kennedys, the Skakels, everyone.'. [67], On May 28, 1981, Billings died in his sleep following a heart attack in his Manhattan apartment. Lem never really left Jacks orbit after boarding school. His father was a prominent physician and a graduate of the U.S. Vessey paid Masters with meth and a vehicle in exchange for the death of Billings. Kennedy was allegedly on the receiving end of oral sex. Princeton University. You can follow her on Twitter . Lem Billings died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack on May 28, 1981, at the age of 65. Wikipedia (3 entries) edit. He became Jackies confidant and the trusted recipient of her views about the other women who flitted in and out of her husbands life. I have also studied the forensics of the assassination for 21 years. It would go on to become one of his most prized possessions." JFK's oldest and best friend was Kirk LeMoyne Billings, known as "Lem." The two became fast friends in prep school and, after graduation, they traveled to Europe together. In the summer of 1937 Billings and Kennedy took a summer trip through Europe which solidified their friendship. How remorseless Stephen Bear continued his arrogant antics up until Do not sell or share my personal information. I'm not that kind of boy.' Perhaps, given his deep personal knowledge of the President and his friendship with the First Lady, he even gave directions as the photographer snapped the candid shots that would charm both the nation and historians. A different side of JFK: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings met atChoate Rosemary Hall and became lifelong friends. "He never really came out of it. Co-executive Editor, Public Seminar and Professor of History, The New School for Social Research, Photo credit: Cecil Stoughton/Wikimedia Commons. 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. I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another.'. Billings could best be described as Kennedy's "wingman", closest male friend, and boon companion as they moved into adulthood. 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. Bobby's decision to pick up Jack's torch was important to Lem as well. Billings took leave from his business career to work on Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign. While Billings' missive is long gone, a startled Kennedy responded, 'Please don't write to me on toilet paper anymore. This is fascinating, Claire. From 1933 to 1946, Billings and JFK exchanged letters, with Jack often antagonizing Lem in the correspondence. 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. John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings, right, who was a classmate from the Choate School and Princeton University, outside a drugstore, ca. Here is a look at their friendship. Like the rest of the free world, Billings was devastated when President Kennedy was assassinated. An autopsy report says Billings' cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. It impressed . 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). 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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. I don't know how we will carry on without him. '"[39], Most recognized that Billings and Kennedy had been friends from youth and did not question their relationship or Billings' presence. 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. [3] They became fast friends, drawn to each other by their mutual distaste for their strict school. A crew jock, he met Jack at Choate, a boys' boarding school, in Wallingford, Connecticut (it is now co-ed). In 1929, Billy's brother, the reclusive, never married Charles Lemp had moved back into the Lemp Mansion with his dog. Needless to say, JFK may have had, in a sense, two widows. She reportedly had a love-hate relationship with her husband's best friend. ", Billings' family could chafe at his adoration: "My uncle was not someone you could have a reasonable conversation with about what was going on with the Kennedys," his nephew said in Princeton's alumni magazine. 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. Their mothers just married the same man. He claimed he was rebuffed: according to Pitts, it was Jacks decency at that moment that caused the pair to become close, and the moment they decided to become roommates. [16], On September 12, 1953, Billings was an usher at the wedding of Kennedy and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. [11], After working on Kennedy's successful campaign for Congress in 1946, Billings toured seven Latin American countries with Robert F. This essay was originally published at OutHistory.orgon November 22, 2013; it has been updated and re-edited. [10] In 1944 he received a commission in the U.S. 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. [14] In 1958, he moved to the Manhattan advertising firm Lennen & Newell[15] as an advertising executive. Billings then prepared responses and read them aloud to her. Pamela Long Wiggins, who was convicted of accessory to murder after the fact in connection with the Billings murders, died Thursday in state prison. Born in 1916, Billings was the son of a Pittsburgh doctor. His latest book, The Kardashians: An American Drama, will be published in September. 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. (Page 100). She had to submit questions in advance. Ben Bradlee, a Kennedy friend who worked at Newsweek during the Kennedy Administration, and no friend of Billings,[40] said "they were childhood friends and stayed loyal to each other forever." "Because of him, I was never lonely. Bobby Kennedy Jr. gave the eulogy. "Because of him," Lem Billings once said of President Kennedy, "I was never lonely" Smith, 433-4; see also: Smith, 113: "The only counterbalance to the [Kennedy] family's philistinism had been Lem Billings, whose passion for art and antiques had begun with his Princeton theses on Tintoretto, a precociously sophisticated study. He had interests of his own that Jack didn't necessarily share. Lem was a virtual fixture in the Kennedy family who even had his own room at the White House. However he does quote Billings admission that he may have been in love with Kennedy his whole life. [55] Kennedy knew that homosexual behavior on the part of Billings had been revealed by a fellow Choate student during their years there. 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. And did he personally lend a hand from time to time? Poor guy. May I come inside?" Language: English Words: 1,469 . Their lifelong relationship caused some of the presidents advisers to fear Russian agents may use the information as blackmail. 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. I'd read a bit about Lem Billings in various Kennedy bios . EXCLUSIVE: Head teacher of leading grammar school is sacked for sending parents a list of striking teachers. He never lost this.". "'Of course, there was always Cape Cod in Massachusetts when the president wanted to be near the water,' Lem remarked. John F. Kennedy, whose 100th birthday is being celebrated this year with a Kennedy Centennial postage stamp, TV memorials, a slew of books, and much media coverage, was revered as the 35th president of the United States. 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. And the White House itself seems to have been welcoming to other non-heteronormative men in the Kennedy years. One of their friends thought "that Jackie was trying to close Lem out. 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. In many ways, Lem was like a father to me and he was the best friend I will ever have.' 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. When Jack discovered that Billings was gay once declining an amorous overture from Billings the friendship is thought to have gone on unharmed. His name was Lem Billings. 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 . 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. [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. Kennedy and Billings remained intimate in part by managing Jacks sex life, his career, and his family, together. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3269576/How-Ethel-Kennedy-.. view all Lem Billings's Timeline (Page 80), Lem examines a damaged ambulance door following the Messerschmitt attack, Sirte, Libya, 1943. Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. 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. Click to browse the Lem Billings Personal Papers KLBPP-001-003-p0015. (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. Authorities have identified the woman found dead Tuesday in a residence on Avenue B in Billings as Shanna Lynn Booth. But above all, Bobby was very important to Lem personally. A Catholic couple, the Kennedys hoped for more children: Jack had been one of nine, while Bobby and Ethel Kennedy had eleven. [54] Billings had his own room in the White House. This was at the end of their final presidential debate at Hofstra University in New York in October, 2008. He believed Billings loved Kennedy. He might have been the reason I never got married. [28] One presidential aide later said that "some people saw him so much they thought he was the Secret Service. I really got to know them well. 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Kennedy Anything Including Possible Affairs, oral history interview for the John F. Kennedy Library. "[41] At the same time, he admitted that no one ever expressed the idea aloud during Kennedy's White House years. From there we would helicopter right to his father's front lawn. JFK also shared women with male friends and relatives, a homoerotic impulse often seen in fraternities or other male organizations where men reinforce intimacy by having sex with the same woman. educated at. [24], Billings visited the White House for most weekends during the Kennedy Administration. "[Billings] was a witness to so much of what was going on. He didn't want to share his friendship with Jack.