[20] He later said: "I realized that I did not want to work for the president because I felt it would change our relationship. 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 is a historic rural cemetery. [18], In 1960, on leave from his job, he worked on Kennedy's presidential campaign. The story about Lem Billings '39 and JFK was very interesting and even moving (cover story, April 12). Lem's sister, Lucretia, who knew Jack as well, said, 'I think he had to do something because Jack was doing so much.' (Page 80), Lem examines a damaged ambulance door following the Messerschmitt attack, Sirte, Libya, 1943. [68] He is buried in Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[69]. Who was Jack Lemmon's wife? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3269576/How-Ethel-Kennedy-.. view all Lem Billings's Timeline [25]:364 According to Kennedy family members, such as Peter Lawford, and others, Billings began using drugs[25]:365 due to the influence of the Kennedy and Lawford boys. [10] In 1944 he received a commission in the U.S. How remorseless Stephen Bear continued his arrogant antics up until Do not sell or share my personal information. The story of Jack and Lem opens a window into the presidency, but it also suggests that historians of heterosexuality might want to look more closely to see which gay lives are lived near, but outside the conventional frame, of heterosexual families, a project that novelist Amy Bloom has recently undertaken in her fictional account of the love affair between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickock. "Jack and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship" Kennedy knew Billings was in love with him (Billings declared his love and was rejected by Kennedy) and Kennedy liked that, the attention and knowing the power he has over billings also his wife Jackie Kennedy hated Billings and hated that he and . "[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. Harvard University. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he sometimes acted as escort for several of the Kennedy women. But this may, in fact, just be gossip. 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. Their mothers just married the same man. (Page 95), Jack and Lem on leave, Palm Beach, 1944"It's not clear whether Lem wanted to join the navy and see combat because Jack had, or because he wanted it for himself. Billings kept the letters JFK wrote to him between 1934 and 1939, and he donated the entire collection to the Library in the 1970s. "He never really came out of it. 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. Jackie and Vidal werent cousins. 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. [1] The Billings family were Episcopalians and Republicans.[2]. You can follow her on Twitter. He reportedly never entertained or enjoyed social outings. "'Of course, there was always Cape Cod in Massachusetts when the president wanted to be near the water,' Lem remarked. Billings was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 15, 1916, the third child of Frederic Tremaine Billings (18731933) and Romaine LeMoyne (18821970). 'They make fun of my voice. "[25]:244 Sometimes he stayed for longer periods. In 1929, Billy's brother, the reclusive, never married Charles Lemp had moved back into the Lemp Mansion with his dog. Lem Billings (right) was Kennedy's roommate at Choate and Princeton and an usher at his wedding, Spending most weekends at the White House during JFK's presidency, he became known as the "first friend." Although Billings kept his homosexuality private, it wasn't entirely a secret. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. 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. 0 references. I was pleased to note that things picked up after your arrival,' referring to Montgomery's battle with Rommel at El Alamein. We are a non-profit organization, wholly supported by The New School, and by the generosity of our sponsors and readers. But was reportedly upset that her husband spent so much time with him, and that he often stayed overnight at the White House. Kirk LeMoyne Billings and John F. Kennedy. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings was an American businessman known for his close and long-time friendship with John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family. 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.'. At least one of these intimates, Kirk LeMoyne Lem Billings, was one of Jacks cherished body men, and he lived part-time in the White House throughout the three years of Kennedys presidency. "He needed Lem Billings to get around better than a trained nurse" that would have made his political career impossible. He had a very independent mind. Lem Chesmore is a 34-year-old Billings native who grew up on the sport. With that out of the way, their relationship continued essentially unchanged until JFK's assassination thirty years later.". Although Alford refused, she did not always have the self-confidence to say no: earlier, she had fellated a staff member in Jacks presence. Oscar Cainer tells all. But above all, Bobby was very important to Lem personally. President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas 50 years ago, leaving behind a mourning nation and his gay best friend, Lem Billings. 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. Billings, for his part, never married and eventually became a marketing executive and worked on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. 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? [4], Some historians believe that Billings expressed his sexual interest in Kennedy in writing in 1934 and that Kennedy rebuffed his advances. "[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. Lem Billings relaxed on the Kennedys' Palm Beach estate the summer of 1936. (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. [63][25]:505 He maintained close ties to the Kennedys and their children for the rest of his life, frequently socializing with Bobby Kennedy Jr., to whom he became almost a surrogate father, and Christopher Lawford. 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. ", 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. Billings then prepared responses and read them aloud to her. JAMIE RICHARDSON: John F. Kennedy had no shortage of people who considered themselves friends of the 35th president. When JFK was assassinated, he turned his attention to his nephew Bobby Kennedy Jr. Was this part of his commitment to the Presidents good health? The president was famously believed to have affairs during their marriage. "[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. In which 20 year old John F Kennedy's best friend shows up on his doorstep one evening. He helped handle even some of Jack's most personal affairs, Pitts writes in his book: "Jack's dates would be managed by Lem. "He did not want to hear one negative syllable, and there were a lot of negatives going along.". Gore Vidal, the writer who claimed he viewed homosexuality as normal as heterosexuality, disparaged the JFK-Billings relationship during the Kennedy administration. The . Naval Academy. It impressed . 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. 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. Major Character Death; John F Kennedy/ Lem Billings; John F. Kennedy; Lem Billings; Friends to Lovers; Hurt/Comfort; Summary. And all the while, Lem Billings was there: waiting, serving, comforting and helping the Kennedy family adjust to the public glare. A new book is claiming that John F. Kennedy had more than just a platonic friendship with his life-long gay best friend, Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings. Jack & Lem: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship, John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings by David Pitts Carroll & Graf. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. "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. Bobby's decision to pick up Jack's torch was important to Lem as well. [34] He joined the President's entourage for his tours of Europe in both 1961 and 1963. 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. 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). 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." They werent even related. 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. Sometimes Jack bitched Lem out one letter saying, "Of all the cheap shit I have. ', Jacqueline Kennedy was reportedly unhappuabout her husband and Billings' three decade long relationship. A telephone conversation between President Kennedy and Lem Billings. [62], After the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, Billings became depressed and started to drink in excess, an addiction that plagued him for most of his life. Lem's team was attempting to take down a number of South Vietnamese officials. Maura Healey Says Ron DeSantis Taking U.S. Backwards, Club Q Hero Richard Fierro on the Former Safe Space's Future, Betches Media's Sami Sage on Reaching People Through Humor and Championing Women's Rights, Kentucky Senator Whose Trans Son Recently Died Blasts New Anti-Drag Bill, Hershey's Chocolate Sparks Conservative Outrage Over Women's Day Campaign, Jussie Smollett's Attorneys Appeal Hate Crime Hoax Conviction, Anti-LGBTQ+ Missouri Lawmaker Challenged on Her 'Don't Say Gay' Bill, Michigan's Lesbian Attorney General Receives Anti-Semitic Death Threat, Anti-LGBTQ+ Libs of TikTok Creator Chaya Raichik Does Bizarre CPAC Talk, Iowa Republicans Seek to End Marriage Equality in State, George Santos to Be Investigated by House For Finances, Sexual Misconduct, Tennessee Governor Signs Felony Drag Show Bill, Bans Gender-Affirming Care, DeSantis Appointees Eliminate DEI Programs at Fla. College Amid Outrage, Thomas Orlina Shines a Light on Mental Health for Teen Mental Wellness Day. As the then-Senator stepped up for his turn, Williams admired his body. After Jack Kennedy's election to the presidency, Billings was a constant presence and overnight guest at the White House. As of 2018 Lem Billings is 65 years (age at death) years old. For Jack and Lem, the carefree period of their lives -- their school and college years -- were now behind them. Booth, 32 years old, died of "undetermined causes" with no obvious signs of . Claire Potter is professor of history at The New School, and Executive Editor of Public Seminar. 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. Public Seminar is a journal of ideas, politics, and culture published by the Public Seminar Publishing Initiative at The New School. [47], Billings spent less time with the President in the fall of 1963. 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. The biographer Sally Bedell Smith, referred to Billings in one of her books as 'probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows.'. Billings repeated his senior year so that he and Kennedy could graduate from Choate together in 1935. [31] He accompanied the President to church,[32] launched a kite for the President's daughter Caroline,[33] and delivered pet hamsters to the Kennedy children. Authorities have identified the woman found dead Tuesday in a residence on Avenue B in Billings as Shanna Lynn Booth. Inside Matt Hancock's 41-hour battle to save his career when photo of 'a snog and heavy petting' with aide Will Vladimir Putin's empress pay the ultimate price for his war on the West? In 1964, Billings was named to head a ten-person committee to select a memorial to Kennedy to be placed in the Kennedy Center. 0 references. "[27] Billings never had a White House pass and said: "Jack and Jackie were so nice about this that I didn't even have to tell them whether I was coming or going. ', 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. I dont buy it. 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. (Page 100). "[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. Once, Alford remembered, Kennedy suggested that she would be doing him a favor if she agreed to help his younger brother, Ted, a newly elected Senator, with his own tensions, while the President watched from across the pool. We might even call it a romantic friendship. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he sometimes acted as escort for several of the Kennedy women. Mid-1930s. 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! "Because of him," Lem Billings once said of President Kennedy, "I was never lonely" 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. ", 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. 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? (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. [64], Billings' behavior changed drastically in the late 1960s. "Depending upon where the lung cancer was, her heart could have taken a direct hit," said Dr. Sharonne N. Hayes, a cardiologist and founder of the Women's Heart Clinic at the Mayo Clinic. It would be the last Christmas in which the United States would be at peace for more than four years. Lem Billings may have been present for, but just outside the frame, of these pictures. The Cold War was still raging, and there was fear Russian agents might use the friendship against Kennedy. 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. In many ways, Kennedy was also enjoying the kind of sex life that would later characterize the gay mens party of the 1970s. 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. Allegheny Cemetery is one of the largest and oldest burial grounds in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 'What the hell have you been doing? [6][7], In 1941, Billings failed medical tests required by the military. In recent years, there has also been talk of a movie adaptation. (Page 64), Harry Dixon, Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy, John Coleman, Charlotte McDonnell, Jack and Lem, Palm Beach, Christmas 1940, "After his sojourn in Hollywood, Jack returned to the East Coast in time for the Christmas vacation period, during which he liked to spend time with his family and Lem. He was a beautiful baby," he ducked into a boiler room and wept. When Jack discovered that Billings was gay once declining an amorous overture from Billings the friendship is thought to have gone on unharmed. 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. 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. Lem never really left Jacks orbit after boarding school. Quirk had met Billings in the mid-Forties when both were volunteers in Jack Kennedy's first congressional campaign. 'Dear Mrs. Billings. 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. (Page 276). He believed Billings loved Kennedy. Date (s) of Materials: 25 March 1964. But the point of the picture is the grief any couple would feel at the loss of a much-wanted child. Get that ass! he said to Vidal. Billings was a longtime Kennedy family friend, working to preserve the slain president's legacy even after death. Lem was no civilian; he was a member of the Viet Cong. William Lemp III died an untimely death of a heart attack at the age of 42. When Billings learned that the love of his life was dead on November 22, 1963, Pitts writes: It was as if he had been struck by lightning; he was consumed by grief. Lem was the second person Jacks sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, called after reaching her sister, Pat Lawford. Co-executive Editor, Public Seminar and Professor of History, The New School for Social Research, Photo credit: Cecil Stoughton/Wikimedia Commons. The importance of other causes of death such as communicable diseases, maternal, neonatal and nutritional causes, and noncommunicable diseases like cancer and heart disease varied most between different countries. 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. Release of Secret JFK Assassination Records Delayed by Biden, Angering Some of the Kennedys. Kennedy was allegedly on the receiving end of oral sex. Perhaps, however, Billings simply chose not to come out for his own reasons, devoting much of the rest of his life to preserving the memory of the man he loved. In reference to this relationship, I came across another interview in which JFKs sexuality was discussed and that interviewer defended JFKs relationship with Lem? The parents who fear their 11-year-olds will be scarred for life by the graphic sex education lessons that Two Insulate Britain protesters are jailed for contempt of court after they defied a judge's orders not to 'Derek fights on, it makes me fall in love with him all over again:' Kate Garraway reveals there are days French authorities fear 'narco-tourists' could flock to Normandy beaches after 'more than two tonnes of Hopes for cervical cancer vaccine after trials in mice showed it reduced tumours 80 per cent of the time. "The agency, which was the 13th largest in the United States in 1971, went bankrupt the following year, listing almost $11 million in liabilities. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. ', 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. Both Jack and Lem were crazy about dogs and soon fell totally in love with little Dunker. In "Jack and Lem", author David Pitts looks at the relationship between the late president and Kirk LeMoyne Billings or "Lem". To begin with, why would JFK give him a private room at the white house, to come and go at his leisure? Vessey paid Masters with meth and a vehicle in exchange for the death of Billings. Although Jack and Bobby were of different temperaments -- Jack, detached and cerebral, Bobby, intense and emotional -- Lem saw so much of Jack in Bobby. Lem Billings is a member of famous Celebrity list. 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. They were bound together by a love of fun and practical jokes, resentment of Choate, and envy of their higher-achieving elder siblings -- Joe, Jack's brother, and Josh, Lem's brother." Even worse, many such slurs aren't from men but 'I couldn't do it without you': Victoria Beckham poses with her whole family after her PFW show - as she Brooklyn Beckham puts on a loved-up display with wife Nicola Peltz as they head back to hotel after Cruz Beckham supports his mother Victoria as he carrying his very own VB handbag on the way to her show Like father, like daughter! 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