"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. Joe generously paid for half the cost of Lem's ticket on the way over, saying Lem could pay at least part of it back when he graduated from Princeton. In many ways, Kennedy was also enjoying the kind of sex life that would later characterize the gay mens party of the 1970s. When Jack discovered that Billings was gay once declining an amorous overture from Billings the friendship is thought to have gone on unharmed. John F. Kennedy (right) and Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings sit in a wicker chair outside the Kennedy family home in Palm Beach. At one point, he is said to have remarked: "After I go, there'll be no more Kennedys.". 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. it would not surprise me knowing how most of the Kennedys (including ole Joe!) Billings was a longtime Kennedy family friend, working to preserve the slain president's legacy even after death. How remorseless Stephen Bear continued his arrogant antics up until Do not sell or share my personal information. Each column is a city, with each color representing . ', 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. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use. In 1965, Mrs. Kennedy invited Billings to accompany her and her children to England for the unveiling of a memorial to Kennedy at Runnymede. According to the book, a gift from Billings a whale's-tooth scrimshaw was buried with him. [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. In many ways, Lem was like a father to me and he was the best friend I will ever have.' The affair was socially isolating for a very young and sexually un-liberated woman, causing her to deceive friends, boyfriends and ultimately her husband and children for most of her adult life. I have no doubt the same was true in American upper-crust boarding schools in the single-sex days. Get that ass! he said to Vidal. [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. 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. 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. Sexual Abuse at Choate Went On for Decades. He may have been the reason I never got married. Adapted from New York Times bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer's explosive new book, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: RFK Jr. and the Dark Side of the Dream. While at Choate, they formed a club and called themselves "The Muckers". ', But Billings was embarrassed about his effeminate mannerisms he'd remain publicly closeted for his lifetime. ", 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. 0 references. President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas 50 years ago, leaving behind a mourning nation and his gay best friend, Lem Billings. "Jack was anxious to reach Lem and to find out how he was doing. And the White House itself seems to have been welcoming to other non-heteronormative men in the Kennedy years. The Depression had hurt the Billings family financially, and Lem Billings was at Choate on scholarship. Mom who lost both sons to fentanyl blasts laughing Biden, Two Russian tanks annihilated with bombs by Ukrainian armed forces, Isabel Oakeshott receives 'menacing' message from Matt Hancock, Pavement where disabled woman gestured at cyclist before fatal crash, Pro-Ukrainian drone lands on Russian spy planes exposing location, 'Buster is next!' (Page 80), Lem examines a damaged ambulance door following the Messerschmitt attack, Sirte, Libya, 1943. 12 pdf icon; leading cause of death data, including firearm, homicide, and drug poisoning mortality data, and infant mortality . Either way, it was a courageous move in view of the casualties the navy was suffering in the Pacific at the time. (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. Lem profited from the friendship--he was an official member of the Kennedy clan, he went to fancy White House parties and even had his own friendship at the presidential mansion at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. In addition to Lem, Kennedys bisexual brother in law, actor Peter Lawford, and novelist Gore Vidal, a relative of Jackies, were frequent visitors and playmates. "The agency, which was the 13th largest in the United States in 1971, went bankrupt the following year, listing almost $11 million in liabilities. Jerry Oppenheimer is a New York Times bestselling author who has written two books about the Kennedys. Lem Billings was a lifelong friend of Kennedy's, beginning from when they were roommates at Choate, continuing til Kennedy's assassination in 1963. [47], Billings spent less time with the President in the fall of 1963. Williams, a handsome gay southerner, had already written seven hit plays. Quirk had met Billings in the mid-Forties when both were volunteers in Jack Kennedy's first congressional campaign. 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. Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want to remind everyone of that today. "[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. 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. It would go on to become one of his most prized possessions." LeMoyne Billings and Ethel Kennedy attend Liza Minnelli Concert on May 23, 1970 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. 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. I am gay and this relationship was more than relieving sexual tension! enwiki Lem Billings; 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. Naval Reserve and served in the South Pacific until being discharged in 1946. "[52] One historian wrote that after the 1963 assassination Billings was: "probably the saddest of the Kennedy 'widows'. But I'm stuck with the Kennedys emotionally, and I will be to the end of my life. Jack's best friend was Lem and he would want me to remind everyone of that today." (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. This may have been true of his wife, although perhaps she understood from the beginning that their marriage would be non-monogamous. Pitts' 2007 book helped spur renewed interest in the friendship between President Kennedy and Billings. Elisa Lam was a 21-year-old woman on an adventure when she died at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles' skid row. In 1929, Billy's brother, the reclusive, never married Charles Lemp had moved back into the Lemp Mansion with his dog. Lem's team was attempting to take down a number of South Vietnamese officials. Anyone who wants to know more about JFKs actual sex life can email me at tim.a.nicholson@gmail.com Here is my sons grandfather with JFK in Dec 1963. It remains the worst such failure in the history of advertising agencies. 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. [26] When the First Lady was away, Billings organized White House dinner parties for the President and old friends,[27] and when the President traveled he kept the First Lady company. Allegheny Cemetery is one of the largest and oldest burial grounds in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We might even call it a romantic friendship. With that out of the way, their relationship continued essentially unchanged until JFK's assassination thirty years later.". (Page 307)Listen to a short phone conversation between the two of them: DAVID PITTS is a longtime journalist whose work has appeared in The Washington Post and other leading newspapers. In recent years, there has also been talk of a movie adaptation. In its final year, Lennen & Newell had domestic billings of $140 million, and Mr. Toigo had said that the agency was worth between $12 million and $15 million and that he owned about 95 percent of the stock. Ethel's alcoholic, philandering brother, George Skakel Jr., actually booted Billings in the a** at the church, knocking him into the aisle. . Soon I discovered that he glared with equal suspicion at anyone whose friendship with JFK postdated his own. Billings repeated his senior year so that he and Kennedy could graduate from Choate together in 1935. July 24, 2015. After finding the body and returning the heroin . Kirk LeMoyne Billings and John F. Kennedy. How Prince Harry's chat with guru who compared Hamas terrorists to Jews who battled the Nazis has appalled JAN MOIR: Goodbye Ken, the world always seemed safer with you on the airwaves, Abstaining from masturbating RAISES risk of anxiety, depression and erectile dysfunction, study warns. (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. "Because of him, I was never lonely," Billings said once. He didn't want to share his friendship with Jack. Billings, he said, "had a natural jealousy. Bobby Kennedy Jr. gave the eulogy. This was at the end of their final presidential debate at Hofstra University in New York in October, 2008. His father was a prominent physician and a graduate of the U.S. [4] The Muckers would pull pranks around the school and even planned to dump horse manure in the school gym, but that fell through after the headmaster found out. 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! Lem Chesmore is a 34-year-old Billings native who grew up on the sport. University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias died of "cocaine intoxication" after ingesting an unusually pure dose of the drug that stopped his heart within minutes, Maryland's chief medical . "[25]:244 Sometimes he stayed for longer periods. Pictures of the first family are typical of Cold War domestic norms: widely distributed before and after his death, these photographs show him as a conventional, heterosexual husband and a devoted father. During that time, he told researchers, "All the kids came over to see me. 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.'. 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. During the night of May 28, 1981-almost two decades after JFK's untimely death - 65-year-old Lem Billings died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack. 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. Vidal thought Jacqueline Kennedy thought Billings "was kind of a nothing but Jack needed him and she was practical. From there we would helicopter right to his father's front lawn. cause of death. 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. Witch, Harridan, Harpy, and new insults like Karen and Terf. And seated close to Kennedy is his shirtless, tanned and oiled best friend forever, his very gay chum, Kirk LeMoyne 'Lem' Billings. David Pitts quotes Vidal cruelly calling Billings a lifelong slave, the principal fag at court, and a nurse who helped Jack deal with the pain caused by Addisons disease. When Jack reached home, the two friends greeted each other like there was no tomorrow." His book Jack and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship, from which the text of this slideshow is excerpted, was one of The Advocate's five best books of 2007. 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. JFK's Best Friend Lem: Transcript. 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? [11], After working on Kennedy's successful campaign for Congress in 1946, Billings toured seven Latin American countries with Robert F. Public Seminar is a journal of ideas, politics, and culture published by the Public Seminar Publishing Initiative at The New School. Eunice Kennedy Shriver 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. 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. 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. Kennedy first met Billings when they were teenagers at a school called Choate. Authorities have identified the woman found dead Tuesday in a residence on Avenue B in Billings as Shanna Lynn Booth. 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 . "[59], In 1964, Billings was named to select a memorial to Kennedy to be placed in the Kennedy Center. One of their friends thought "that Jackie was trying to close Lem out. In the epidemiological framework of the Global Burden of Disease study each death has one specific cause. [21][22] The next year, Kennedy named him to a board to plan America's participation in the New York World's Fair of 19645. Billings had once told Bobby that. The elder Kennedys began to discourage the boys from associating with Billings because of his excessive recreational drug use (including alcohol). I'm not that kind of boy.' Date (s) of Materials: 25 March 1964. (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. "'Of course, there was always Cape Cod in Massachusetts when the president wanted to be near the water,' Lem remarked. ", Still, he was well aware of his proximity to history. Sitelinks. educated at. ', 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. Article. 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. Quirk immediately pegged Billings as gay, noting his 'high, screechy laugh,' and 'high nasal whine of a voice.' 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. In 1964, Billings was named to head a ten-person committee to select a memorial to Kennedy to be placed in the Kennedy Center. I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another.'. "At Choate, boys who were interested in sexual involvement with other boys were courteous and discreet, writing notes on toilet paper so they could be easily swallowed or flushed," David Pitts writes in his 2007 book Jack and Lem: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship. "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. [12], From 1946 to 1948, Billings attended Harvard Business School and earned an MBA. The first lady, Jackie, had something of a love-hate relationship with Billings. 228. Description: In this interview, Billings discusses John F. Kennedy's time at Choate, his family life, and their first trip to Europe together, among other issues. William Lemp III died an untimely death of a heart attack at the age of 42. In less than a year, the country would be at war." Indeed, it often seems that Kennedy did treat people who loved him for granted. [64], Billings' behavior changed drastically in the late 1960s. The biographer Sally Bedell Smith, referred to Billings in one of her books as 'probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows.'. Were Lem and Jack sexually intimate as well? 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. 'Yesterday was Jack's birthday. "Because of him," Lem Billings once said of President Kennedy, "I was never lonely" He once described the Kennedy family's lack of business awareness: "Listening to the Kennedy brothers talk about business was like hearing nuns talk about sex. Lem's raison d'tre was Jack Kennedy. Copyright 20142023 The Editorial Board of Public Seminar, All Rights Reserved. With his political influence, Jack Daniels became a monopoly as the only legal whiskey distillery in 1947 in Tennessee. Billings reportedly told Kennedy of his romantic intentions in prep school (JFK pictured chatting with Marilyn Monroe and Robert F Kennedy). I don't know how we will carry on without him. Bobby Kennedy Jr. read the eulogy. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. . ", 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. 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. [51] Red Fay, a friend of the President from his World War II service, said of Billings: "I didn't see anything overtly gay about him; I think he was neutral. Kennedy later graduated from Harvard, but the pair wrote letters back and forth, spent weekends together in New York and traveled to Germany in the summer of 1937. After saying in a quiet voice, "He put up quite a fight. Access Restriction Status: Open. [68] He is buried in Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[69]. He may have been the reason I never married.. I'd read a bit about Lem Billings in various Kennedy bios . They remained close until Kennedy's assassinationBillings had his own room in the White House, and Joe Kennedy Sr. called him "a second son." (Which is odd considering JFK . [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. [17] In 1956 he was an usher at the wedding of Kennedy's sister Jean to Stephen Edward Smith. [6][7], In 1941, Billings failed medical tests required by the military. For Jack and Lem, the carefree period of their lives -- their school and college years -- were now behind them. She was expected to be constantly available for him, he was inconsiderate and unloving, and she was permitted to tell no one. ", So frequent a presence was he that Ted Kennedy, more than a decade younger than his brother Jack, said he "was 3 years old before it dawned on me that Lem wasn't one more older brother.". Use Restriction Status: None. The murder of Curtis Lemansky marked the beginning of the end for the Strike Team. 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. He sent one letter to Lem's mother addressed to the American Field Service PO Box in New York. [4], In 1939, Billings graduated from Princeton where he majored in art and architecture[5] and wrote his senior thesis on Tintoretto. In which 20 year old John F Kennedy's best friend shows up on his doorstep one evening. 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. I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity.]. He wanted to be with him, to be a part of whatever he wanted to do to continue Jack's legacy." 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. Was this part of his commitment to the Presidents good health? 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. During the night of May 28, 1981almost two decades after JFK's untimely death - 65-year-old Lem Billings died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack. During the night of May 28, 1981almost two decades after JFK's untimely death - 65-year-old Lem Billings died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack. [20] He later said: "I realized that I did not want to work for the president because I felt it would change our relationship. 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. Billings took leave from his business career to work on Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign. Poor guy. "I was never lonely.". 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. He had clearly been adopted into the larger Kennedy clan, and Jackie drew him into her family circle as well. I don't think it's true that he did not have views of his own, as some have said. 'What the hell have you been doing? But there is also an important story about race, and social class, to be told here. Bobby's decision to pick up Jack's torch was important to Lem as well. According to author Christopher Bram (2012), Vidal told the playwright he shouldnt cruise our next president, then repeated the remark to Kennedy. Like the rest of the free world, Billings was devastated when President Kennedy was assassinated. [35] In 1962 he escorted two of the President's sisters, Eunice Shriver and Jean Kennedy Smith, around Europe for more than two weeks. 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. 'Our story is one of hope': Conjoined twins who made history as first EVER pair survive to separation As Charles Bronson faces a parole hearing on Monday Will Britain's most violent prisoner soon be painting Is this Britain's most despicable man? 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.
Bloodborne Blood Echo Farming,
Tribute Automotive Z3gt Build,
Neshaminy High School Teachers,
What Is The Cubic Feet Of My Kenmore Washer,
Fair Play Cards Printable,
Articles L