The pair had a three-decades long friendship that some have speculated may have also included a romantic affair. Newly-Digitized Documents (218,000 of them!) from the Archives The teenagers worked together on their classs yearbook, and Billings became sexually attracted to the handsome young Kennedy. And seated close to Kennedy is his shirtless, tanned and oiled best friend forever, his very gay chum, Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings. Sixteen days after RFK was buried, Ethel and her brood were aboard a yacht destined for Hyannis Port and the Kennedy compound. 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 the spring of 1971, Bobby was sacked once again. Jfk And Jackie Kennedy. Son of Frederick Tremaine Billings and Romaine Elizabeth (LeMoyne) Billings. By clicking on a service below, you can view the obituary and service details, leave a condolence, send flowers, and if requested by the family attend a service live with remote attendance or view the service at a later time. You can't even talk to him. Although there have been several rumors throughout the decades of JFK being romantically involved with Marilyn Monroe, the former president has also faced rumors of a relationship withhis gay best friend Lem Billings. He was 65 years old. Gay History: John F. Kennedy Had A Gay Best Friend Who - Timalderman He later received
The eyes even wider. She never visited Bobby,' said James Hejduk, who had arrived to teach music at the same time that Bobby began his Millbrook matriculation. Lem Billings was called and, according to Donn Wright, who became the new headmaster, 'he didn't try to change anybody's minds. Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. "Will we be chauffeuring her fianc, too? Because it was the boys' first offense, they were placed on probation. Queer question. 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. I mean, she doesn't look like she belongs there any more than I do, and I briefly wonder if she's a housemaid or a nanny, taking her one allotted evening out. John F. Kennedy Had a Thing for Scrimshaw - Boston Magazine Somebody who was also not of the Kennedys, but very much wanted to be one of them. claims bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer, Lyndon B. Johnson demanded to be sworn in alongside Jackie Kennedy, How you can learn Gaelic literature and culture online with a top Irish university, The story behind Ireland's favorite song, The Cranberries "Zombie", How the Irish (and Welsh) invented romantic love. Jackie Kennedy, who liked Billings for
I was told by Billings, "Nothing ever goes directly to Ethel." Jackie was reportedly upset that her husband spent so much time with Billings and that he often spent the night at the White House. "I loved the idea of Lem being the go-between for the two lovers and being broker for Jack but also a confidante for Jackie," he says. And it's a kind of interesting love triangle between these three fascinating people.". Her knees are drawn protectively to her chest, and there's something quite exposed about her. In truth, the Kennedys did have criticisms of Queen Elizabeth following their meeting. "I think she went into this thinking that she was getting the conventional husband, even though her own father was a complete philanderer and she knew that," Bayard says. 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. Ethel Kennedy issued the requisite concerned parent statement, calling Bobby a 'fine boy, and we have always been proud of him. In 1942, Lem joined the Ambulance Corps, an organization that
Naval Reserve and served in the South Pacific eventually
And, for once, Billings, who serves as the story's narrator, has as big a voice as the Kennedys. JACKIE & ME | Kirkus Reviews ', 'It was that kind of talk, more bragging, but I believed him. You didn't want to get too close to him.'. His name was Lem Billings. The Camelot that Kennedy Built teddyken95: Lem Billings. Kirk LeMoyne Inside the relationship between JFK and Lem Billings But Billings remained closeted publicly for his life. From 1946 to 1948, Lem attended Harvard Business School. Since she considered young Bobby the most difficult and troublesome of her seven sons and three daughters (with another child the daughter Rory -- due at any moment), she decided to hand him off to Lem Billings, and moreover, sent him far away to boarding school, in the rural Hudson Valley of New York State. Bobby's uncle, Ted, who had just faced the Chappaquiddick scandal, flew in from his senate office in Washington to stand up for his nephew. The only ties he now had to his family while in school was Lem Billings. All in all, there's a certain relief in being able to retreat into the Crestline's back seat. "Its the story of a really close friendship
Kirk Billings, 65, Dies; Friend of the Kennedys, https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/29/obituaries/kirk-billings-65-dies-friend-of-the-kennedys.html. 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 - Wikipedia . Kirk LeMoyne Billings was Jack's very best friend from their time at Choate prep school in 1933 to that fateful day in Dallas 1963. Claudette informed Vic that she was told that Lem's lack of a department funeral and motorcade would prevent news headlines about Lem's "dirty dealings". The Kennedys were a liberal family and one that tolerated a lot of heterosexual promiscuity as well., In her memoir, Times To Remember, published eleven years after JFKs assassination in Dallas in 1963, matriarch Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy wrote that Billings had remained Jack's lifelong close friend, confidant, sharer in old memories and new experiencesHe has really been part of 'our family' since that first time he showed up at our house as one of 'Jack's surprises., Lem Billings and John F. Kennedy pictured at the Kennedy familys Palm Beach estate. He truly loved the Kennedy's and as Jack's best friend. Then she leans toward Jack and, in a whisper stagy enough for me to hear, says, "I like your friend.". If we had made that very different choice, we would've gone down a completely different road. JFK's gay widow - Dallas Voice Credit: JFK Presidential Library and Museum. I have one additional comment, probably to be regarded as politically incorrect. And now that we've crossed into Virginia, the only thing left to figure out is where she might live. ", Bayard learned something else about Jackie during his research. Mr. Billings and Mr. Kennedy. But was reportedly upset that her husband spent so much time with him, and that he often stayed overnight at the White House. ', Rose Kennedy, however, had a different, more positive view of Billings. Because Jack had no intention of ever being a faithful husband. Find the obituary of Lem Speer (1928 - 2021) from Billings, MT. Abruptly, she stands and gives us two quick waves and then, as she jogs to the passenger side, comes briefly ablaze in the headlights. ', 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. Jack and Lem explores the enduring friendship between John F. Kennedy and Kirk Lemoyne Billings (aka "Lem"). their summer trip through Europe prior to World War II. Quirk claims Billings would later confide in him that his relationship with Kennedy was sexual, to a point, and included oral sex, with Jack always on the receiving end., Their arrangement, Quirk says, 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, Jack was in love with Lem being in love with him and considered him the ideal follower adorer.. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings, was a prep school roommate and then lifelong close friend of President John F. Kennedy. While he didn't have a chemistry teacher like Walter White, aka 'Heisenberg' of TV's Breaking Bad, the Camelot scion was doing everything he could to get high on whatever drugs he could get his hands on. The family went back
They adopted a little
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. Lem Billings had heard about the school from Adam Yarmolinsky, a one-time trusted aide to both RFK and JFK, whose son had graduated a year before Bobby's arrival. Lem even wrote John a love note on toilet paper . Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you. 228. Ancestors. 'Yesterday was Jack's birthday. 'Ethel never had any contact about her son. Billings made his desire known while the two were still at school by writing Kennedy a love note on a piece of toilet paper. 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. Ethel's alcoholic, philandering brother, George Skakel Jr., actually booted Billings in the a** at the church, knocking him into the aisle. 'We would get a telephone call from that funny old nurse, who sounded like an old-time nanny, and she would say, "It's President Kennedy's birthday and Bobby needs to go to Mass and observe that," and my husband would have to take him,' recalled his widow. Once again, Ethel Kennedy made just one appearance at the school, accompanied by Lem Billings, when Bobby was admitted, and 'everything had to go through Billings,' said Warren Geissinger, Bobby's Pomfret advisor, looking back years later. "And she knew, at some level, that she was marrying another version of her father. Funeral Home in Elkhart IN | Billings Funeral Home "And who should that be?". 'I've just met the smartest little boy! The martyred widow had taken out her anger and frustration on an easy and available target - her third-born, her late husband's namesake, Bobby Jr., who was a behavior problem even before his father's tragic death. They continued to Princeton
Lem
Billings maintained close ties to the Kennedys and their children
Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings was a bumbling giant, the offspring of a prominent but cash-poor Protestant family. Peter Cole, who taught English, noted, 'We as faculty members all seemed to have this awareness of Bobby's behavior and were totally unable to do anything about it, We did catch him finally and he was going to get tossed.'. Billings kept the letters JFK wrote to him between 1934 and 1939, and he donated the entire collection to the Library in the 1970s. Brode had liberal views, didn't mind that Bobby smoked pot with Lem Billings in Bobby's room. times, Lem might have been described as a "confirmed bachelor," although
Billings enthused to RFK and Ethel in his high-pitched voice, which RFK made fun of behind his back. It was Bobby Kennedy Jr. who gave the eulogy. No, I wished he was only a pothead.
', 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. Billings Funeral Home. Try again later.
If you have recently lost a family member or friend, we hope that you will accept our condolences. Lem had several jobs including selling Coca-Cola dispensers to drugstores, working
His goal was acceptance at Harvard, which was virtually guaranteed, so many Kennedys before had gone there. I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another.. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him my sec 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. After Kennedy was elected president, Billings was a constant presence at the White House, and advisers were concerned about possible political repercussions. I'm not that kind of boy.'. Lem Billings | Military Wiki | Fandom Lem Speer - BILLINGS, Montana , Smith Downtown Funeral Chapel Biographer Sally Bedell Smith referred to Billings as probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows., RELATED:Details About Kristen Stewarts Fiance Dylan Meyers & Their Adorably Casual Proposal. He noted that everywhere Jack went, Billings was sure to follow, like a puppy dog. David Pitts, the author of Jack and Lem: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship, told him: Lem was a gay man and he had a 14-year-old, good-looking kid living in his house with him and there had been rumors because of that. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. The young JFK, messing around with Lem Billings during their Choate years. Wanting to be around family . The first lady, Jackie, had something of a love-hate relationship with Billings. Lem was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1916
Never-before-seen footage captures JFK on vacation months before He headed the committee that oversaw the construction of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Of course, that gave most ofus the thought - does this guy have a job other than caring for Bobby? He possessed a 'high, screechy laugh' and a 'high, nasal whine of a voice' that, according to Quirk, 'instantly tabbed him as gay.'. Their very intimate relationship would last from those school days to Billings even having a room in the Kennedy White House distressing for the first lady to the day of Kennedy's assassination. I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity.]. None of it came as a surprise to his roommate, Fanning. October 14, 2015. After Jack Kennedy's election to the presidency, Billings was a constant presence and overnight guest at the White House. His latest book, The Kardashians: An American Drama, will be published in September. As Lindsey Cole Miesmer, a member of the class of 1972, who later became one of the school's trustees, noted, 'There was no school with any structure that Bobby could go to because Bobby was in trouble emotionally. By now, my glasses are fairly crusted over with pollen, so I'm making windshield wipers of my index fingers as I ask what it is that Miss Bouvier does with her days. 'He seemed a very pleasant fellow,' said Bontecou, a classmate of Bobby's. "They make fun of my voice. Leave your condolences to the family on this memorial page or send flowers to show you care. 'They make fun of my voice. "And I think he might have been, honestly. Try our online preplanning tool. by the end of his own lifetime he would have been described as gay. Lem Billings '39's Life | Princeton Alumni Weekly He noted that everywhere Jack went, Billings was sure to follow, like a puppy dog. Kirk LeMoyne Billings, a retired advertising executive and a friend of President John F. Kennedy, died Wednesday at his Manhattan apartment. What happened when Jackie Kennedy and Queen Elizabeth II met?
Trio arrested during crackdown fall foul of national security law. 'Sometimes I answered the phone and I would hear her wispy voice, and then I would get my husband to talk to her.'. But for this kid to say that to me at that time was pretty deep and dark. And it was pretty common, of course in those days and that culture, for men not to be that way.". Kirk LeMoyne Billings was Jack's very best friend from their time at Choate prep school in 1933 to that fateful day in Dallas 1963. It was he, not Ethel, who handled all of Bobby's expenses 'He would come over fairly frequently for dinner whenever he was in town,' she recalled. 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.". In the spring of 1972, with graduation approaching, Bobby took the SAT college board exam, and filled out his application for college. Funeral homes; Help and advice. ', In fact, in private, she ranted, 'You've dragged your family's name through the mud.'. 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? Aangirfan: GAY KENNEDYS - Blogger Although Mr. Billings never served the President in an official capacity, he was a frequent guest at the White House. ', 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. . White House and advised Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in her redecoration of the
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., David Kenne. was running for President. On school breaks, Jack often brought Billings home with him, sparking Joe Kennedy to complain to his wife, Rose, 'Do we have to have that q***r around all summer?'. Woodward Obituaries | Local Obits for Woodward, OK - Legacy.com Billings and. In both the book and real life, Bayard explains that Billings played a key part in the couple's romance. RELATED:Jeffrey Epstein's Relationship With Princess Diana Explored In New Book. He had his own room in the
She never visited.'. The President never failed to introduce Lem formally to visiting heads of state, dignitaries, and celebrities, but the introduction was never simply a matter of "I would like you to meet my friend, LeMoyne Billings." "He'd introduce me as Congressman Billings or Senator Billings, and even General Billings," Lem would later recall . Arrangements are pending at Billings Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Elkhart. RFK's assassination had naturally devastated his 40-year-old wife, Ethel, who was pregnant with her eleventh child.