Later Years. 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. Fredrik Logevall on JFK, with David Nasaw, October 6, 2020, 3. Kirk LeMoyne Billings, a retired advertising executive and a friend of President John F. Kennedy, died Wednesday at his Manhattan apartment. Billings said. 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. Lem had extremely poor eye sight and a high-pitched voice. Her knees are drawn protectively to her chest, and there's something quite exposed about her. Quirk immediately pegged Billings as gay, noting his "high, screechy laugh," and "high nasal whine of a voice.". Her main concern was that he be on time for dinner. F. I'm not that kind of boy.'. Suddenly she became angry at Bobby, ordered him below deck, literally beat him with a hairbrush, and once again ordered him to get out of her life. I have one additional comment, probably to be regarded as politically incorrect. Sixteen days after RFK was buried, Ethel and her brood were aboard a yacht destined for Hyannis Port and the Kennedy compound. But the man married to Jackie Kennedy was quietly chided for his compulsive philandering. His classmates were worried that he was going to kill himself, that we were going to find him dead.'. The book is set in 1981, in New York City, where Jackie has settled after becoming the Widow Onassis and joining the working world. Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. Mind you, there's nothing in that honorific Miss to signify a lady of distinction. to the arrival of the Mayflower and were ardent abolitionists who championed the When JFK was assassinated, he turned his attention to his nephew Bobby Kennedy Jr. Infuriated, his mother demanded: 'Just leave home. Ambassador to France under JFK, were hauled into juvenile court in the town of Barnstable on Cape Cod on charges of marijuana possession. Lem was John F Kennedy's best friend. The family went back I understand he's not worth it.". 'We never saw Ethel on the campus again. A unique and lasting tribute for a . 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. They continued to Princeton His name was Lem Billings. Lem Billings and John F Kennedy were practically inseparable in prep school. '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.'. . had no problem with his eye sight and saw action in North Africa. He was also plagued by ill health. 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. It's the weekend before St. Patrick's Day, 1952, and there's still a late-winter nip in the Virginia air, but Jack always keeps the top down because, by age thirty-four, he knows how dashing his hair looks in high wind. a commission in the U.S. 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. Jackie, I imagine, is now asking the name of Bobby's daughter or wondering if Eunice will be there and which one is Pat? He also is responsible The biographer Sally Bedell Smith, referred to Billings in one of her books as "probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows.". 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. ', As Quirk further observed, 'Jack was in love with Lem being in love with him and considered him the ideal follower-adorer.'. That kind of thing,' recalled the widow of one of the school's headmasters while Bobby was in attendance. Copyright 2023 Irish Studio LLC All rights reserved. She contacted the headmaster on several occasions to ask about the boy's well- being. Jerry Oppenheimer is a New York Times bestselling author who has written two books about the Kennedys. Lem was the second person Jack's sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, called after reaching her sister, Pat Lawford. If you have recently lost a family member or friend, we hope that you will accept our condolences. education of free black Americans after the Confederate States of America was And it's a kind of interesting love triangle between these three fascinating people.". Billings was buried near his mother's grave in his hometown of Pittsburgh. dachshund they named Dunker but had to give him up because of Jack's allergies. All Rights Reserved. ", Bayard learned something else about Jackie during his research. While the 35th president has been legendarily known as a womanizer who frequently cheated on his wife, Oppenheimer alleges that JFKs three-decades-long relationship with his former prep school friend Lem Billings may have been a sexual one. '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.'. " Bayard says of Billings. 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. Billings, was a prep school roommate and then I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another.'. When we first happen upon her, her face is angled away, as though she's cocking her ear for a nightingale. Nothing for it, then, but to watch Miss Bouvier's headunder the weight of her impending introduction to the Kennedy clanloll ever so gradually to the right. Quirk alleged thatBilling and Kennedys relationship included oral sex with JFK always being on the receiving end. The pair had a three-decades long friendship that some have speculated may have also included a romantic affair. 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. But we speed past all those destinations before steering up Old Dominion Drive. Billings would later spend nights in the White House where he had his own room, Schoolboy crush? Their close relationship also caused his advisors to fear blackmail and political repercussions from Russian agents. She has dabbed herself with Chateau Krigler 12 (I consider telling her it's my mother's favorite), and there is the complicating counter-aroma of Pall Malls, and somewhere at the back, simple bovine perspiration. 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.'. Bobby Kennedy Jr. read the eulogy. The president is seen teeing off, among his guests joining him being Press Secretary Pierre Salinger, lifelong friends Lem Billings and Charles Spalding, and British Ambassador Sir David Ormsby-Gore. Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want to remind everyone of that today. 'Bobby was Machiavellian. ', 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. 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. 'Ethel never had any contact about her son. 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. Kennedy.). I mean, she doesn't look like she belongs there any more than I do, and I briefly wonder if she's a housemaid or a nanny, taking her one allotted evening out. Her general lilt, as best I can tell, is interrogative, but why should that be a surprise? Billings Funeral Home, in Elkhart IN, offers personalized and compassionate service for everyone who walks through our doors. JFK's Best Friend Lem: Transcript. Bayard explores the beginnings of the romance between the future Mrs. Kennedy, then the inquiring photographer for the Washington Times-Herald, and young Congressman John F. Kennedy, with Jack's best friend, Lem Billings, serving as a "go-between" for the lovers in 1950s Washington, D.C. Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want to remind everyone of that today. If we had made that very different choice, we would've gone down a completely different road. There was a fear Russian agents could use the relationship to blackmail Kennedy, says Oppenheimer. Credit: JFK Presidential Library and Museum. We learn more curious facts when we read that Lem Billings became a 'surrogate father' to Bobby Kennedy, Jr., after the alleged death of RFK. 'He was coming up and he was taking Bobby out to dinner and things like that. To virtually attend a service live Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Featuring interviews with Ben Bradlee, Gore Vidal, Ted Sorenson, friends, family, and many . He noted that everywhere Jack went, Billings was sure to follow, like a puppy dog. 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. to Frederic Tremaine Billings, a prominent physician and Romaine LeMoyne (direct 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. JAMIE RICHARDSON: John F. Kennedy had no shortage of people who considered themselves friends of the 35th president. 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 . But, the Skakels had previously been homophobic to Billings. 'He almost did things to shock you on purposeIt was a pretty dark, grim time; he was miserable and he was angry. 'They make fun of my voice. 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 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? What if Jacqueline Bouvier had chosen differently? 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. Everything involving Bobby had to go through Billings. They both kept diaries documenting, in words and pictures, their adventures, mishaps, and observations along the way. Published in The Elkhart Truth from Feb. 20 to Feb. 21, 2023. Somebody who was also not of the Kennedys, but very much wanted to be one of them. Take a look inside Dublin's most stylish townhouse, Number 31. Bayard's novel takes place primarily in the months leading up to Jack and Jackie's wedding on Sept. 12, 1953. He'd be expelled from Millbrook and later be ordered to leave the second school, Pomfret, in rural Connecticut, for using drugs and displaying bad, often bizarre behavior. He once called Billings the 'chief f****t at Camelot.' Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want to remind everyone of that today. One of the most credible accounts of the Kennedy-Billings relationship was told by David Pitts, who I interviewed extensively for my book, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.And The Dark Side Of The Dream, because the strapping, bespectacled Billings, with a high-pitched, effeminate voice, would later become the fawning surrogate father and fellow drug user of JFK's nephew, Bobby Kennedy Jr., with whom Billings also had intense romantic feelings. He headed the committee that oversaw the construction of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Unlike Millbrook and Pomfret, Palfrey Street was a day school, so Billings arranged with the Brode family of Cambridge to house and feed him, and watch out for him. Their foresight led to the development of a funeral home dedicated to providing the best quality service possible to families at their . Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings (April 15, 1916 - May 28, 1981) was a close and long-time friend of President John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family. ", "We'd have to drive clear to New York for that. The Brodes friends included a number of gay men, among them such openly gay politicians as Barney Frank and Gerry Stuuds. A startled Kennedy responded to the note by saying, Please don't write to me on toilet paper anymore. He thought From the book Jackie & Me by Louis Bayard. 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. In Victorian While Billings' missive is long gone, a startled Kennedy responded, 'Please don't write to me on toilet paper anymore. White House and advised Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in her redecoration of the Published online July 6, 2017. their summer trip through Europe prior to World War II. Arrangements are pending at Billings Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Elkhart. 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. He was born to Otis and Anna Speer on July 14, 1928, in Glasgow, Montana. "And she knew, at some level, that she was marrying another version of her father. Brother of Frederic Billings Jr. [spouse (s) unknown] [children unknown] Died 28 May 1981 at age 65 in New York City, New York, United States. Click to browse the Lem Billings Personal Papers KLBPP-001-003-p0015. As Fanning recalled years later, 'The room was filthy and Bobby let the bird, which perched on the bust of his father, s**t all over the place, including all down that bust of his dead father. 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?'. Kirk LeMoyne Billings and John F. Kennedy. 2023byTango Publishing Corporation All Rights Reserved. When a Harvard classmate asked Bobby whether such talk had any reality, whether he seriously thought he could win a presidential election and be the second Kennedy to rule the country, Bobby's response was: 'I feel that is my destiny.'. "He [Billings] was a witness to so much of what was going on. Queer question. By Sydney Taylor Written on Nov 06, 2021. getting discharged in 1946. However, the relationship between New York City, taking lunch from his job at Lennen & Newell. Try our online preplanning tool. In her memoir, published eleven years after the first Kennedy assassination, she wrote that Billings had 'remained Jack's lifelong close friend, confidante, sharer in old memories and new experiences . '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. Lem Billings. This was at the end of their final presidential debate at Hofstra University in New York in October, 2008. ', 'It was that kind of talk, more bragging, but I believed him. Two months after Bobby was expelled, he along with a cousin, Bobby Sargent Shriver III, son of the former U.S. Billings had actually fallen in love with Bobby as he had fallen in love with Bobby's uncle Jack when they had become close chums while working together on the Choate [their prep school] yearbook. I was told by Billings, "Nothing ever goes directly to Ethel." He was kind of sinister. As one source told me, 'Young Bobby replaced Jack in Lem's heart of hearts.'. Where sits a girl. 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. He accepted it.' 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. 228. While the Kennedy family had accepted Billings into their inner circle because of his tight friendship with JFK, Ethel Kennedy's family, the scandalous Republican Skakels of Greenwich, Connecticut, weren't so accepting. (In September, Jack joined Lem Billings passed away from a heart attack at 65 in 1981. There's something half buried in that remark, and I don't know how to disinter it. He later received A different side of JFK: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings met atChoate Rosemary Hall and became lifelong friends. him to drink. Did the 35th US President John F Kenned have a secret gay relationship with his childhood friend Lem Billings? Senator Edward M. Kennedy will speak at a memorial service tomorrow morning at 10 A.M. at the Church of the Heavenly Rest, 90th Street and Fifth Avenue. The martyred widow had taken out her anger and frustration on an easy and available target - her third-born, her late husband's namesake, Bobby Jr., who was a behavior problem even before his father's tragic death. who established the African-American LeMoyne-Owen College). the bond between Billings and Kennedy became so strong that Billings stayed back Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. descendant of John LeMoyne, a French physician and Dr. Francis LeMoyne, an abolitionist Heide Knop. 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. 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. ', 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. Try again later. Extent: 82 digital pages. Billings and. Only a very liberal school [like Pomfret] that needed money would take him.'. In school JFK and Lem were close. The Cold War was still raging, and there was fear Russian agents might use the friendship against Kennedy. Billings had once told Bobby that when. (Video) Caroline Kennedy on JFK's secret recordings, (Video) JFK's Women: Scandals Revealed | CBC, (Video) July 20, 1962 - President John F. Kennedy arriving home for weekend, (Video) President Kennedy's family reflects on his 100th birthday, 2. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. 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. 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. By And I think Billings had a way of editing things - painting the picture of Bobby's performance smoother than it really was. defeated. Since she considered young Bobby the most difficult and troublesome of her seven sons and three daughters (with another child the daughter Rory -- due at any moment), she decided to hand him off to Lem Billings, and moreover, sent him far away to boarding school, in the rural Hudson Valley of New York State. Forests of redbud and magnolia are thickening around us, and somehow they're all in on the secret, and Kay Starr sings "Wheel of Fortune" on the radio, and, during the second chorus, I sneeze, and Jack says, "Perfectly in tune, Lem," and then the song is over, and we're pulling up in front of . Nature rushes forth, and the car dealers and the Hot Shoppes fall away before dogwoods and tulip trees, tatters of forsythia. 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. Bayard, the bestselling author of Courting Mr. Lincoln and The Pale Blue Eye, tells PEOPLE he was "agnostic" about the Kennedy clan until he learned about Billings' personal history. I'm not that kind of boy.. "He also reveals that there was this crucial moment," says Bayard. For the first time, I begin to wonder if Miss Bouvier is nervousthough it's difficult to confirm because she has a small voice and the wind seems to slap every word back down her gullet. Lem P. Speer, 93, died peacefully in his home on November 20, 2021. This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. "And I think he might have been, honestly. President Jimmy Carter broke royal protocol by kissing the Queen Mother on the lips during his visit in 1977. Lem married Rolla Jean Auer on September 17, 1950. 'We had a couple of calls from Jackie - "How's my nephew doing?" 7:44 PM. I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another.. Was it best that he stay and risk the possibility of injuring himself seriously or completely, or was it best for him, as nasty as it was, to ask a Kennedy to leave.'. 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?". With "Jack and Lem," Pitts has indeed turned over a new stone. . It was all quite bizarre. According to biographer James Spada, When Kennedy tired of her, he passed her off to his brother in 1962. President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas 50 years ago, leaving behind a mourning nation and his gay best friend, Lem Billings. As one source told me, "Young Bobby replaced Jack in Lem's heart of hearts.". From 1946 to 1948, Lem attended Harvard Business School. A name he kept stumbling across was Lem Billings, who was identified as John Kennedy's longtime best friend. Lem Well, where? 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. Billings had once told Bobby that when. After Kennedy was elected president, Billings was a constant presence at the White House, and advisers were concerned about possible political repercussions. White House. David Pitts, the author of Jack and Lem: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship, told him: 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. 'Sometimes I answered the phone and I would hear her wispy voice, and then I would get my husband to talk to her.'. Sydney Taylor is a writer who focuses on News and Entertainment topics. claims bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer, Lyndon B. Johnson demanded to be sworn in alongside Jackie Kennedy, How you can learn Gaelic literature and culture online with a top Irish university, The story behind Ireland's favorite song, The Cranberries "Zombie", How the Irish (and Welsh) invented romantic love. Ethel's alcoholic, philandering brother, George Skakel Jr., actually booted Billings in the a** at the church, knocking him into the aisle. From all accounts, they became fast friends, drawn to each other by their ', By 'But Lem,' he clearly recalled, 'was around a lot, and we as faculty were told who he was and that he was Bobby's caretaker, as it were, in a loco parentis kind of role. By easy degrees, she turns around and bestows on me a fuller version of that first smile. 'Everybody was at least smoking pot - everybody - and a lot of people were doing LSD and other recreational stuff,' recalled classmate John Seibel, who became an attorney. ", But Billings was embarrassed about his effeminate mannerisms - he'd remain publicly closeted for his lifetime. At Pomfret, he also ignored most of the white kids and hung out with a small group of black students who were part of a program to help underprivileged boys from the mean streets of New York City, some of them gang members. JFK appeared to be in love with the idea of Billings being in love with him. Lem Billings was a strapping, bespectacled, 'grizzly- bearish' fellow with big feet and a large head topped by curly, dirty blond hair, who always seemed to be smiling. 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. Read More. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. Getty Images Billings, for his part, never married and eventually became a marketing executive and worked on the John F. Kennedy Center for the. And Bobby was sort of always unkempt.'. Kirk Lemoyne Billings Memorial Page. His appearances were unusual in that you never knew when he was going to show up. It was Bobby Kennedy Jr. who gave the eulogy. He was 65 years old. , updated But it was the only boarding school that Lem Billings could find that would admit him. Initially, Bobby's dorm room with his first roommate had become a veritable shrine to Bobby's father. His latest book, The Kardashians: An American Drama, will be published in September. I'd known him then for a few months and knew he'd do anything. 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Fanning, a self- described wild child at the time, recalled Bobby's visits to the pit, which he had witnessed, as 'grotesque. We have 2 volunteers within fifty miles of your requested photo location. ', 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. Jackie O. Genealogy profile for Lem Billings Kirk LeMoyne Billings (1916 - 1981) - Genealogy Genealogy for Kirk LeMoyne Billings (1916 - 1981) family tree on Geni, with over 230 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives.

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