Billings, for his part, never married and eventually became a marketing executive and worked on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings was an American businessman known for his close and long-time friendship with John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family. I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another.'. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use. 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. President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas 50 years ago, leaving behind a mourning nation and his gay best friend, Lem Billings. And all the while, Lem Billings was there: waiting, serving, comforting and helping the Kennedy family adjust to the public glare. Lem's team was attempting to take down a number of South Vietnamese officials. As we both know, homosexual relationships in English boarding schools were put down to adolescent hijinks and men *grew out of them*. "'I'm sure he's already organizing everything in heaven so it will be completely ready for us . The evidence presented indicates that Jack found out . The story about Lem Billings '39 and JFK was very interesting and even moving (cover story, April 12). How remorseless Stephen Bear continued his arrogant antics up until Do not sell or share my personal information. '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. 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. 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. Billings then prepared responses and read them aloud to her. Lem Billings and John F. Kennedy met as teenagers at their Connecticut prep school and remained lifelong friends. ', 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. [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. I have also studied the forensics of the assassination for 21 years. Lem Billings is a member of famous Celebrity list. It would go on to become one of his most prized possessions." 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. 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. Authorities have identified the woman found dead Tuesday in a residence on Avenue B in Billings as Shanna Lynn Booth. In 1929, Billy's brother, the reclusive, never married Charles Lemp had moved back into the Lemp Mansion with his dog. Bobby Kennedy Jr. gave the eulogy. And did he personally lend a hand from time to time? (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. Lem Billings was a lifelong friend of Kennedy's, beginning from when they were roommates at Choate, continuing til Kennedy's assassination in 1963. Felicia Farr m. 19622001 Cynthia Stone m. 19501956 Jack Lemmon / Wife He was 76. Details of Lem Billings and JFK's three decade relationship are revealed in 'Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And The Dark Side Of The Dream'. In recent years, there has also been talk of a movie adaptation. 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. He claimed he had no idea who the Kennedys were, but they wanted to meet Williams, and Vidal produced him. His father was a prominent physician and a graduate of the U.S. Kennedy first met Billings when they were teenagers at a school called Choate. . Kennedy. 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. Soon I discovered that he glared with equal suspicion at anyone whose friendship with JFK postdated his own. place of burial. ', But Billings was embarrassed about his effeminate mannerisms he'd remain publicly closeted for his lifetime. A Princeton friend and former business partner confided to Pitts about Billings that after Jacks death: He didnt want to live anymore, and other friends claimed that he never recovered from the loss. 'It was very hard for him, but he wanted to do it and he stuck with it,' Lucretia added. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to receive selections from new issues of Public Seminar. [8] In 1942, supported by a recommendation from Joseph Kennedy Sr., his friend's father, who called him "my second son," he won admission to the American Ambulance Field Service, where his poor eyesight was not a disqualification. He wanted to be with him, to be a part of whatever he wanted to do to continue Jack's legacy." 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. [55] Kennedy knew that homosexual behavior on the part of Billings had been revealed by a fellow Choate student during their years there. During that time, he told researchers, "All the kids came over to see me. I'm not that kind of boy.' 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. "[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. The young Kennedys took the casket and carried it around the gravesite before returning it to the burial plot. Yesterday was Jack's birthday. And seated close to Kennedy is his shirtless, tanned and oiled best friend forever, his very gay chum, Kirk LeMoyne 'Lem' Billings. Oscar Cainer tells all. He escorted Mrs. Stephen Smith, sister of the late President, to . Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want to remind everyone of that today. [66], In 1987, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin described how Billings structured her interviews with him. "He never really came out of it. 73 Photos of Naturally Naked Men by Terry Hastings, 23 Masturbation Tips for People With Vaginas, 22 Terrifying Sexual Fantasies That Must Be Talked About, 30 Kinky Terms Every Gay Man Needs To Know, 10 Sex Toys for All Genders and How to Use Them, Alternative Orgasms: 20 New Ways to Hit the Spot, LGBTQ+ Rights Lawyer Shannon Minter's Home Hit by Tornado, 'First Deep Breath' Is a Moving Story of a Black Family & Queerness, Karine Jean-Pierre on Tennessee Anti-Drag Law: Unacceptable & Unfortunate, Texas GOP May Censure Congressman Over Support for Marriage Equality, 12 LGBTQ+ Films and TV Shows to Watch in March, The Dildo Nazi: Sex Toy-Selling White Supremacist Umasked, Lesbian Gov. [37], Billings' role as "first friend" was assessed by many observers at the time and since. 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. Plastic surgeon reveals five cosmetic procedures she would NEVER get - from dangerous Brazilian butt lifts BEL MOONEY:Why does caring for my dad take over my life? [16], On September 12, 1953, Billings was an usher at the wedding of Kennedy and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. The 51-year-old daughter of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died Sept. 16 while working out at her Washington, D.C., gym. 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. [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. Needless to say, JFK may have had, in a sense, two widows. You can follow her on Twitter . I have no doubt the same was true in American upper-crust boarding schools in the single-sex days. "And everything ready for a big, big party.". Billings served with Sargent Shriver as a trustee for the Kennedy family trusts. 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. He was a beautiful baby," he ducked into a boiler room and wept. 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. According to the book, a gift from Billings a whale's-tooth scrimshaw was buried with him. COVID-19 became the No. In their own words: 'each death is attributed to a single underlying cause the cause that initiated the series of . "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," Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the president's sister, said in a eulogy. [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.'. A crew jock, he met Jack at Choate, a boys' boarding school, in Wallingford, Connecticut (it is now co-ed). [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. The Kennedys tolerated his homosexuality, which was considered taboo at the time, Lawrence J. Quirk, the author of'The Kennedys in Hollywood' said Billings and JFK's relationship turned sexual at a point. As the then-Senator stepped up for his turn, Williams admired his body. I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity.]. [54] Billings had his own room in the White House. 'They make fun of my voice. 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. Ironically, Motlow, who had sustained a stroke in 1940, died that same year . Billings repeated his senior year so that he and Kennedy could graduate from Choate together in 1935. 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. Definitions: Cause of death vs risk factors. myocardial infarction. That he is believed to have been gay at a time when homosexuality was still illegal even being somewhat open about his sexuality, including within the powerful Kennedy clan sheds light on the strength of his ties to the family. Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. 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!' Those who knew Charles described him as a sour, angry man. 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. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Billings once admitted that he made a pass at Jack early on. Date (s) of Materials: 25 March 1964. After the assassination of RFK in 1968, the flamboyant Billings transferred his obsessive affection for Jack, to handsome teenager Bobby Jr. David Pitts, the author of 'Jack and Lem: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship,' told me, '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. 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. 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. 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. Public Seminar is a journal of ideas, politics, and culture published by the Public Seminar Publishing Initiative at The New School. John F. Kennedy (right) and Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings sit in a wicker chair outside the Kennedy family home in Palm Beach. 'Haven't heard a word from you,' Jack wrote. But above all, Bobby was very important to Lem personally. It impressed . When the boy died at 4:19 a.m. Kennedy was clutching his little fingers. In "Jack and Lem", author David Pitts looks at the relationship between the late president and Kirk LeMoyne Billings or "Lem". 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. Have a nice one! This is fascinating, Claire. '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? Published online July 6, 2017. When JFK was assassinated, he turned his attention to his nephew Bobby Kennedy Jr. He remained in the closet until his death in 1981 at the age of 65, according to Pitts. In many ways, Lem was like a father to me and he was the best friend I will ever have.' Billings had been a prep school roommate of John F. Kennedy, an usher at his wedding, and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. I'd read a bit about Lem Billings in various Kennedy bios . 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. The Kennedys were a liberal family and one that tolerated a lot of heterosexual promiscuity as well. We might even call it a romantic friendship. Billings as a teenager was 6' 2", weighed 175 pounds, and was the strongest member of the Choate crew. She had to submit questions in advance. 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. "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. The two grew so close over the following months that Billings was invited to the Kennedy family home in Palm Beach, Florida, for the holiday season and, months later, to their Hyannis Port compound, where he was badly burned in a defective shower and hospitalized for three weeks. But I'm stuck with the Kennedys emotionally, and I will be to the end of my life. John F. Kennedy bi-sexual or gay? Lem's raison d'tre was Jack Kennedy. Were Lem and Jack sexually intimate as well? One reason is that, in retrospect, the Kennedy presidency provides a transition from the years of what historian David K. Johnson calls the lavender scare and the unbuttoned, experimental 1960s that launched the gay rights movement. Copyright 20142023 The Editorial Board of Public Seminar, All Rights Reserved. "[48] Billings spent the last weekend of October 1963 with the couple, the last time he saw them together. Lem Chesmore is a 34-year-old Billings native who grew up on the sport. And for Lem and Mark Chesmore, there's nothing more they enjoy doing than participating in their chosen sport of boxing. 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. 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. It is a historic rural cemetery. 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? Eventually, the two friends made contact, however, and began exchanging letters just as they had when both were at home." 64, No. 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. She needed Billings to keep the President company while she went horseback riding. [68] His dying wish was for the young Kennedy men to carry his casket to its final resting place. Jack, Lem, and Caroline enjoying the water, Hyannis Port, 1963. Pitts' 2007 book helped spur renewed interest in the friendship between President Kennedy and Billings. When a butler commented on the fact that Billings was leaving his belongings in one of the third-floor guest rooms, the First Lady replied: "He's been my house guest since I was married. [6][7], In 1941, Billings failed medical tests required by the military. From 1933 to 1946, Billings and JFK exchanged letters, with Jack often antagonizing Lem in the correspondence. An autopsy report says Billings' cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. Both Jack and Lem were crazy about dogs and soon fell totally in love with little Dunker. 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 . 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. [12], From 1946 to 1948, Billings attended Harvard Business School and earned an MBA. 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. 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. [9] He saw action in North Africa in 194243. Jack's best friend was Lem and he would want me to remind everyone of that today." When Jack reached home, the two friends greeted each other like there was no tomorrow." He managed the campaign in the Third Congressional District in the Wisconsin primary and then served as general troubleshooter and coordinator of television in the West Virginia primary. He claimed he was rebuffed: according to Pitts, it was Jacks decency at that moment that caused the pair to become close, and the moment they decided to become roommates. At one point, he is said to have remarked: "After I go, there'll be no more Kennedys.". 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. Billings, Lem (Kirk LeMoyne), 1916-1981. It was Bobby Kennedy Jr. who gave the eulogy. Of course, he had always loved the Cape and was completely happy there.'" As they became close, Billings confided that his relationship with Kennedy was, in fact, sexual, to a point. Jacqueline Bouvier would have the same problem, using every possible excuse to avoid the game, after she and Jack were married in 1953." But this may, in fact, just be gossip. 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. While web sleuths and conspiracy theorists were looking for the person who killed her . Billings took leave from his business career to work on Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign. 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. Lem was no civilian; he was a member of the Viet Cong. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. 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. When Billings died of a heart attack in 1981, Bobby Jr gave the eulogy (From left to right: Lem Billings, Bobby Kennedy Jr andEthel Kennedy), Part of the family: From childhood to adulthood, Billings stayed close to Jack Kennedy and his family. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. 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. 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. When they arrived at the cemetery, it was already in place to be lowered. 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. cause of death. The two became friends, then roommates. 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. "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.". 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. 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. But the man married to Jackie Kennedy was quietly chided for his compulsive philandering. He had clearly been adopted into the larger Kennedy clan, and Jackie drew him into her family circle as well. Elisa Lam was a 21-year-old woman on an adventure when she died at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles' skid row. As of 2018 Lem Billings is 65 years (age at death) years old. ", 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.". Jack & Lem: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship, John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings by David Pitts Carroll & Graf. "[25]:244 Sometimes he stayed for longer periods. He was also plagued by ill health. 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. 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. He was by all accounts JFK's best friend . 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. In 1965, Mrs. Kennedy invited Billings to accompany her and her children to England for the unveiling of a memorial to Kennedy at Runnymede. The first lady, Jackie, had something of a love-hate relationship with 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! It remains the worst such failure in the history of advertising agencies. "He was in a very deep depression; sometimes didn't want to live," Pitts told the New Haven Register in 2007. [10] In 1944 he received a commission in the U.S. 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. The elder Kennedys began to discourage the boys from associating with Billings because of his excessive recreational drug use (including alcohol). [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. "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. Gore Vidal, the writer who claimed he viewed homosexuality as normal as heterosexuality, disparaged the JFK-Billings relationship during the Kennedy administration. 'People think I'm a joke,' he once acknowledged. Billings, he said, "had a natural jealousy. I'm enclosing a letter to Lem, which I wish you would forward, as I haven't any idea where he is. His latest book, The Kardashians: An American Drama, will be published in September. ", 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. [47], Billings spent less time with the President in the fall of 1963. 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.