228. [3] They became fast friends, drawn to each other by their mutual distaste for their strict school. Naval Reserve and served in the South Pacific until being discharged in 1946. 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. Billings served with Sargent Shriver as a trustee for the Kennedy family trusts. 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). In 1965, Mrs. Kennedy invited Billings to accompany her and her children to England for the unveiling of a memorial to Kennedy at Runnymede. Later Years. [9] He saw action in North Africa in 194243. "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. 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. 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. He claimed he had no idea who the Kennedys were, but they wanted to meet Williams, and Vidal produced him. ", 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.". 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. Lem, although said by Arthur Schlesinger to have been jealous of others who drew Jacks attention, was undoubtedly one of the personal assistants and friends who facilitated the Presidents daily need for sex by making sure that women were available when needed. But was reportedly upset that her husband spent so much time with him, and that he often stayed overnight at the White House. 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. Harvard University. [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. Later accounts detailed how Billings had found himself adrift as a student at Choate in the wake of his father's death: "The Kennedys provided family and support and so forth," his nephew told Princeton University's alumni magazine in 2017. ", 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. 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? 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. 'Haven't heard a word from you,' Jack wrote. Have you heard from him?' Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. Jack, Lem, and Caroline enjoying the water, Hyannis Port, 1963. Jackie and Vidal werent cousins. Claire Potter is professor of history at The New School, and Executive Editor of Public Seminar. 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. She reportedly had a love-hate relationship with her husband's best friend. [1] The Billings family were Episcopalians and Republicans.[2]. Authorities have identified the woman found dead Tuesday in a residence on Avenue B in Billings as Shanna Lynn Booth. As they became close, Billings confided that his relationship with Kennedy was, in fact, sexual, to a point. Jack's best friend was Lem and he would want me to remind everyone of that today." His latest book, The Kardashians: An American Drama, will be published in September. Advocate Contributors November 22 2013 4:00 AM EST In photos. 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 . This essay was originally published at OutHistory.orgon November 22, 2013; it has been updated and re-edited. Like many gay men of his generation, Lem may have been very comfortable with his own sexuality and the privacy of his relationship to Jack. 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. He escorted Mrs. Stephen Smith, sister of the late President, to . His mother was a Mayflower descendant and his great-grandfather Francis Julius LeMoyne was a prominent abolitionist linked to the underground railroad who helped establish what is today known as LeMoyne-Owen College. He sent one letter to Lem's mother addressed to the American Field Service PO Box in New York. Lem Billings may have been present for, but just outside the frame, of these pictures. He may have been the reason I never married.. ", 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. 'They make fun of my voice. She was expected to be constantly available for him, he was inconsiderate and unloving, and she was permitted to tell no one. [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. [28] One presidential aide later said that "some people saw him so much they thought he was the Secret Service. 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. I'm enclosing a letter to Lem, which I wish you would forward, as I haven't any idea where he is. 'Dear Mrs. Billings. The book "Jack and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship," details the extraordinary relationship between two unlikely friends. Lem Billings died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack on May 28, 1981, at the age of 65. 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. "Because of him, I was never lonely," Billings said once. A telephone conversation between President Kennedy and Lem Billings. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Like the rest of the free world, Billings was devastated when President Kennedy was assassinated. ', 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 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. The year also brought a staggering . 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. And the White House itself seems to have been welcoming to other non-heteronormative men in the Kennedy years. Billings once admitted that he made a pass at Jack early on. "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 . 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. Eventually, the two friends made contact, however, and began exchanging letters just as they had when both were at home." Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings was an American businessman known for his close and long-time friendship with John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family. 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. 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. Pitts' 2007 book helped spur renewed interest in the friendship between President Kennedy and Billings. Quirk immediately pegged Billings as gay, noting his 'high, screechy laugh,' and 'high nasal whine of a voice.' Yesterday was Jack's birthday. "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. This may have been true of his wife, although perhaps she understood from the beginning that their marriage would be non-monogamous. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. 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. Billings, he said, "had a natural jealousy. He was also plagued by ill health. But this may, in fact, just be gossip. The two became friends, then roommates. 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. [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. [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. Billings could best be described as Kennedy's "wingman", closest male friend, and boon companion as they moved into adulthood. "Because of him," Billings once said. 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. 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. 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. Collier and Horowitz described Billings, later in life, as invariably enmeshed in his late friend's larger family. Lem's team was attempting to take down a number of South Vietnamese officials. Bobby Kennedy Jr. gave the eulogy. Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. (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] was a witness to so much of what was going on. As Billings told researchers for an oral history interview for the John F. Kennedy Library, the two met as teenagers at Choate Preparatory School for boys in Wallingford, Connecticut, in 1933, while working on the student yearbook. [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. 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. Jack and lem billings jfk Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings (April 15, 1916 - May 28, 1981) was a close friend of President John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family. JFKs sex life, and his attachments to men, also needs to be better understood for what it reveals about his inner life, and for a moment in United States political history when sex itself was undergoing seismic changes. "Lem was sixteen, and Jack was fifteen, when they met while working on the school yearbook at Choate School for Boys, the prestigious New England preparatory school located in Wallingford, Conn. From all accounts it was instant friendship. 'Yesterday was Jack's birthday. Billings, a 16-year-old third-year student, and Kennedy, a 15-year-old second-year student, met at Choate, an elite preparatory school, in the fall of 1933. "Jack made a big difference in my life," Billings said in his oral history for the Kennedy library, adding, "He may have been the reason I never got married.". Vidal, the author of a best-selling gay World War II novel, published in 1947 at a time when most queer books were ruled obscene and evidence of homosexual acts could bring a prison term, was unabashedly public about his affairs with men. Details of Lem Billings and JFK's three decade relationship are revealed in 'Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And The Dark Side Of The Dream'. Bobby Kennedy Jr. gave the eulogy. [59], He escorted Jean Kennedy Smith, sister of the President, to a gala ballet performance in 1966[61] and Ethel Kennedy, the president's sister-in-law, to the 1971 opening of the Kennedy Center. enwiki Lem Billings; Both Jack and Lem were crazy about dogs and soon fell totally in love with little Dunker. Lem Billings and John F Kennedy were practically inseparable in prep school. 'I borrowed the other half from an inheritance I was about to receive from my grandmother after I graduated from college,' remembered Lem. 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. As the previous article mentions more has to be explored regarding the relationship between Lem and JFK! Now thats very exciting! said Kennedy with a grin.. He was by all accounts JFK's best friend . An autopsy report says Billings' cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. They always remembered him as the nicest German they ever met." By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use. JFK, or 'Jack' as he was known by his close friends and family, had a gay best friend named Lem Billings, who he met in prep school when Kennedy was 15 and Lem . As we both know, homosexual relationships in English boarding schools were put down to adolescent hijinks and men *grew out of them*. Kennedy and Billings remained intimate in part by managing Jacks sex life, his career, and his family, together. They soon began spiraling toward their eventual demise. [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. However he does quote Billings admission that he may have been in love with Kennedy his whole life. 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. I'd read a bit about Lem Billings in various Kennedy bios . 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 first met Billings when they were teenagers at a school called Choate. Both boys kept diaries on the trip, although Lem's was more of a scrapbook. ', 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. 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. 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. [36] When the Kennedys spent the weekend at Glen Ora, their Virginia estate, Jacqueline Kennedy invited Billings to join them more often than the President did. 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. But I'm stuck with the Kennedys emotionally, and I will be to the end of my life. I'm not that kind of boy.' The Cold War was still raging, and there was fear Russian agents might use the friendship against Kennedy. He didn't want to share his friendship with Jack. He had clearly been adopted into the larger Kennedy clan, and Jackie drew him into her family circle as well. Because of him, I was never lonely, Billings said once. In many ways, Kennedy was also enjoying the kind of sex life that would later characterize the gay mens party of the 1970s. (Page 80), Lem examines a damaged ambulance door following the Messerschmitt attack, Sirte, Libya, 1943. (Note my reply) I think the interview I have reference to is less than a year ago! 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. After Jack Kennedy's election to the presidency, Billings was a constant presence and overnight guest at the White House. In the fictionalAmerican Adulterer (2009), novelist Jed Mercurio s imagines a Kennedy who believes that ejaculating several times a day was crucial to maintaining good health and mental alertness, a form of self-care and that controlled his attacks of Addisons Disease by preventing seminal fluid from backing up into his body. Indeed, it often seems that Kennedy did treat people who loved him for granted. He may have been the reason I never got married. I have one additional comment, probably to be regarded as politically incorrect. [10] In 1944 he received a commission in the U.S. JFKs numerous affairs (before, during and after his marriage to Jackie) and his friendships with gay men suddenly had a social and cultural context that was neither gay or straight, but a harbinger of the sexual freedom and experimentation that would soon be championed in the counterculture and the mainstream. He wanted to be with him, to be a part of whatever he wanted to do to continue Jack's legacy." Public Seminar is a journal of ideas, politics, and culture published by the Public Seminar Publishing Initiative at The New School. 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. Lem Billings Is JFK's 'Go-Between' During Courtship with Jackie as Imagined in New Novel, Robert McNamara's Son Craig Remembers Playing with JFK Jr. and Caroline Kennedy After JFK's Death, New Book Delves Into JFK's Charisma, Insatiable Affairs and His Last Moments with Baby Son Patrick, Author William Manchester Unmasks the Man Behind the Corncob Pipe: Macarthur, A Look Back at the Long List of Kennedy Family Tragedies, 'Without Any Warning, Mrs. Kennedy Begins Crying': Witness Remembers Jackie After the JFK Assassination, Jackie Kennedy's Sister Lee Radziwill Told Friend Truman Capote of Bitter Jealousy She Publicly Denied, Meet JFK's Alleged Mistresses and How Some Met Mysterious Ends, What to Know About Diana de Vegh, Who Says She Had an Affair with JFK When She Was 20, Jackie Kennedy Knew JFK Relationship Would Involve 'Heartbreak' & More Details from New Book, Marilyn Monroe 'Was Enamored of' JFK but 'Wasn't About to Break Up' His Marriage, Frank Sinatra's Friend Says, Why Ethel Kennedy Would Have Forgiven Robert F. Kennedy Anything Including Possible Affairs, oral history interview for the John F. Kennedy Library. 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." "Early on in their friendship, Lem sent Jack such a note and Jack replied in their usual jocular way, adding in parentheses, 'Please don't write to me on toilet paper any more.
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