Sexual Abuse at Choate Went On for Decades. And the White House itself seems to have been welcoming to other non-heteronormative men in the Kennedy years. Jack's best friend was Lem and he would want me to remind everyone of that today." From there we would helicopter right to his father's front lawn. Billings kept the letters JFK wrote to him between 1934 and 1939, and he donated the entire collection to the Library in the 1970s. 1 leading cause of death among Native Americans in Montana during 2020 and the third-leading cause of death for the general population. [9] He saw action in North Africa in 194243. Elisa Lam was a 21-year-old woman on an adventure when she died at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles' skid row. A crew jock, he met Jack at Choate, a boys boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut (it is now co-ed). 'It was very hard for him, but he wanted to do it and he stuck with it,' Lucretia added. Billings took leave from his business career to work on Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign. Between 1933 and 1935, The bond between Jack and Lem grew so tight, journalist David Pitts wrote in Jack and Lem (2008), that they really had no need for friendships with other boys.. [24], Billings visited the White House for most weekends during the Kennedy Administration. Ethel's alcoholic, philandering brother, George Skakel Jr., actually booted Billings in the a** at the church, knocking him into the aisle. You can follow her on Twitter. (Page 100). Though his name isn't as well-known as that of his boyhood best friend, Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings was an important confidante for one of America's presidents and lived a life no less full of its own twists and turns. William Lemp III died an untimely death of a heart attack at the age of 42. Lem Billings died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack on May 28, 1981, at the age of 65. Criticisms from others in the Kennedy orbit insinuate that Jack took advantage of Lems love for him without reciprocating. A historian wrote that after Kennedy's assassination 50 years ago Billings was "probably the saddest of the Kennedy 'widows.'" Born in 1916, Billings was the son of a Pittsburgh doctor. [60] In 1965, Jacqueline Kennedy invited Billings to accompany her and her children to England for the unveiling of a memorial to President Kennedy at Runnymede. 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. 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. I'm not that kind of boy.' Sign up for our weekly newsletter to receive selections from new issues of, what historian David K. Johnson calls the lavender scare, According to author Christopher Bram (2012), her fictional account of the love affair between Eleanor Roosevelt. 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. I'm enclosing a letter to Lem, which I wish you would forward, as I haven't any idea where he is. [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. His name was Lem Billings. "He was in a very deep depression; sometimes didn't want to live," Pitts told the New Haven Register in 2007. educated at. I have one additional comment, probably to be regarded as politically incorrect. 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. 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 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. [4] The non-sectarian, wooded hillside park is located at 4734 Butler Street in the Lawrenceville neighborhood, and bounded by the Bloomfield, Garfield, and Stanton Heights areas. Kennedy and Billings remained intimate in part by managing Jacks sex life, his career, and his family, together. When Jack reached home, the two friends greeted each other like there was no tomorrow." I mean, I could have had a wife, and family, but what the hell -- do you think I would have had a better life having been Jack Kennedy's best friend, having been with him during so many moments of his presidency, having had my own room at the White House, having had the best friend anybody ever had, or having been married and settled down and living somewhere." Both men are being held in . The two became friends, then roommates. 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. 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. "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. But straight men can have a gay side, and JFKs life was filled with prominent gay men, friendships which open the door to other histories. 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. 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. Collier and Horowitz described Billings, later in life, as invariably enmeshed in his late friend's larger family. Naval Academy. Billings would later spend nights in the White House where he had his own room, Schoolboy crush? 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. By the time he became president, however, that revolution had been launched: the birth control pill, developed in the 1950s, became widely available in the 1960s and, more importantly, in 1964, Life magazine would publish a major photo essay about gay mens bars in San Francisco. '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. [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. (Page 80), Lem examines a damaged ambulance door following the Messerschmitt attack, Sirte, Libya, 1943. . Wiggins was serving a 28 years . They met in 1933 in their sophomore year at Choate Rosemary Hall, the exclusive Connecticut prep school, when both were teenagers, working together on their class's yearbook, and Billings instantly became attracted sexually and otherwise to the handsome scion of America's self-styled royal family. Allegheny Cemetery. The pair matriculated at Princeton together in the fall of 1935, although Jack had to withdraw for health reasons, probably early signs of the Addisons disease that would plague him the rest of his life. [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. Could he have been the third leg of what was clearly an unconventional marriage? Although JFK embarked on affairs with women as a very young man, affairs that continued into his married life, Billings remained focused on an erotic life with men and never had a life partner. 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.'. 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 . 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. [16], On September 12, 1953, Billings was an usher at the wedding of Kennedy and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. Soon I discovered that he glared with equal suspicion at anyone whose friendship with JFK postdated his own. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use. Billings reportedly wrote the future president a love note on a piece of toilet paper (pictured at the Kennedys' Palm Beach estate), JFK was famous for his womanizing habits, but one of his closest relationships was withLem Billings. 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! Have you heard from him?' Kennedy was allegedly on the receiving end of oral sex. 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." "Jack was anxious to reach Lem and to find out how he was doing. To order a copy, click here. In many ways, Kennedy was also enjoying the kind of sex life that would later characterize the gay mens party of the 1970s. Co-executive Editor, Public Seminar and Professor of History, The New School for Social Research, Photo credit: Cecil Stoughton/Wikimedia Commons. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to receive selections from new issues of Public Seminar. Lem Billings (left) with John F Kennedy (right) Kennedy and Billings had a sexual relationship including 'oral sex, with Jack always on the receiving end.' Kennedys in Hollywood by Lawrence J. Quirk / The Dark Side Of The Dream In the epidemiological framework of the Global Burden of Disease study each death has one specific cause. July 24, 2015. Bobby Kennedy Jr. gave the eulogy. [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. In Jackies absence, Lem managed the Presidents dinner parties, social life and children. 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. The first time Kirk Lemoyne 'Lem' Billings was . This may have been true of his wife, although perhaps she understood from the beginning that their marriage would be non-monogamous. Lemmon died about 9 p.m. Wednesday at USC/Norris Cancer Center with his wife, actress Felicia Farr, two children and a stepdaughter at his bedside. [68] He is buried in Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[69]. Lem's sister, Lucretia, who knew Jack as well, said, 'I think he had to do something because Jack was doing so much.' [20] He later said: "I realized that I did not want to work for the president because I felt it would change our relationship. 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. Now thats very exciting! said Kennedy with a grin.. 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. The year also brought a staggering . President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas 50 years ago, leaving behind a mourning nation and his gay best friend, Lem Billings. President John F. Kennedy has become infamous for his vivid, and some might say almost compulsive, heterosexual affairs. ", Last edited on 24 December 2022, at 15:36, "JFK's Best Friend Lem: Transcript | JFK Library", Princeton University Undergraduate Senior Theses, 1924-2018 Art and Archaeology, 1926-2018, Alfred E. Clark, "Adolph Toigo, Ex-Chairman of Advertising Agency Dies," January 1, 1982, "End Comes at Lennen & Newell," April 12, 1972, "Miss Jean Ann Kennedy Married," May 20, 1956, "Kennedy Names Friend," September 20, 1961, "U.S. Board Formed to Advise on Fair," January 12, 1962, "Choate Unveils Kennedy's Portrait," May 5, 1963, "Prayer for Nation Joined by Kennedy," January 2, 1961, "Caroline Learns Father Isn't Much of a Kite Pilot," July 7, 1963, "Caroline's 2 Hamsters Hunted in White House," March 5, 1961, "2 Kennedy Sisters in Poland for Visit," September 2, 1961, "Huntington Hartford Weds Diane Brown in New Jersey," October 8, 1962, Luther Turmelle, "Book details JFK's friendship with gay man," May 16, 2007, "Friend of Kennedy Named To Head Memorial Group," July 8, 1964, "Humphreys Attend a Gala Ballet Premiere," January 19, 1966, Nan Robertson, "Glittering Audience Attends Kennedy Center's Opening," September 9, 1971, Michael C. Jensen, "Managing the Kennedy Millions," June 12, 1977, Doris Kearns Goodwin, "Fitzgeralds and Kennedys," March 8, 1987, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lem_Billings&oldid=1129296144, This page was last edited on 24 December 2022, at 15:36. Quirk immediately pegged Billings as gay, noting his 'high, screechy laugh,' and 'high nasal whine of a voice.' A Catholic couple, the Kennedys hoped for more children: Jack had been one of nine, while Bobby and Ethel Kennedy had eleven. Lem never really left Jacks orbit after boarding school. Len Hauss, a rugged mainstay in Washington's offensive line who started 192 consecutive games at center in a 14-year pro football career that led him to the Super Bowl and five Pro Bowl . Like millions of other young Americans, they faced an uncertain future. Billings was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 15, 1916, the third child of Frederic Tremaine Billings (18731933) and Romaine LeMoyne (18821970). Kirk LeMoyne Billings and John F. Kennedy. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. The comments below have been moderated in advance. Later Years. [44] "Jack made a big difference in my life," Billings said. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3269576/How-Ethel-Kennedy-.. view all Lem Billings's Timeline Billings was a longtime Kennedy family friend, working to preserve the slain president's legacy even after death. 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. Authorities have identified the woman found dead Tuesday in a residence on Avenue B in Billings as Shanna Lynn Booth. Vidal thought Jacqueline Kennedy thought Billings "was kind of a nothing but Jack needed him and she was practical. 0 references. 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. He had interests of his own that Jack didn't necessarily share. He was by all accounts JFK's best friend . [28] One presidential aide later said that "some people saw him so much they thought he was the Secret Service. Born in 1916, he was the son of a Pittsburgh doctor. 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. The Cold War was still raging, and there was fear Russian agents might use the friendship against Kennedy. The biographer Sally Bedell Smith, referred to Billings in one of her books as 'probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows.'. 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. [28] He sat with the President's family at the Kennedy inauguration and walked not far behind his widow at the Kennedy funeral. I'd read a bit about Lem Billings in various Kennedy bios . While web sleuths and conspiracy theorists were looking for the person who killed her . I really got to know them well. But this may, in fact, just be gossip. "[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. Lem Billings passed away from a heart attack at 65 in 1981. Wikipedia (3 entries) edit. "[41] At the same time, he admitted that no one ever expressed the idea aloud during Kennedy's White House years. Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. "[41] Gore Vidal, who was banned from the White House after a run-in with Billings,[42] was critical of Billings,[43] but also thought Billings played an important role as an aide to Kennedy, who was often ill or in pain. Sometimes Jack bitched Lem out one letter saying, "Of all the cheap shit I have. And did he personally lend a hand from time to time? 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. 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. Kennedy. [19], In 1961, Billings declined Kennedy's offer to appoint him the first head of the Peace Corps, director of a new agency to promote tourism, the U.S. Travel Service, or ambassador to Denmark. [66], In 1987, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin described how Billings structured her interviews with him. 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. enwiki Lem Billings; They werent even related. But there is also an important story about race, and social class, to be told here. [18], In 1960, on leave from his job, he worked on Kennedy's presidential campaign. To begin with, why would JFK give him a private room at the white house, to come and go at his leisure? Lem Billings is a member of famous Celebrity list. After finding the body and returning the heroin .
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