Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. The year also brought a staggering . While at Choate, they formed a club and called themselves "The Muckers". Both men are being held in . She was expected to be constantly available for him, he was inconsiderate and unloving, and she was permitted to tell no one. In which 20 year old John F Kennedy's best friend shows up on his doorstep one evening. Kennedy was allegedly on the receiving end of oral sex. Billings could best be described as Kennedy's "wingman", closest male friend, and boon companion as they moved into adulthood. His name was Lem Billings. Kennedys social intimacy with gay and bisexual men, and his comfort around homosexuality, is remarkable at a time when those friendships were stigmatizing and when gay and lesbian people were still prohibited from working on most federal jobs. His latest book, The Kardashians: An American Drama, will be published in September. Another shows older daughter Caroline, who became the American Ambassador to Japan under Barack Obama, learning to ride her pony. [35] In 1962 he escorted two of the President's sisters, Eunice Shriver and Jean Kennedy Smith, around Europe for more than two weeks. Billings served with Sargent Shriver as a trustee for the Kennedy family trusts. Wikipedia (3 entries) edit. "Because of him," Billings once said. I'm enclosing a letter to Lem, which I wish you would forward, as I haven't any idea where he is. Billings then prepared responses and read them aloud to her. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. But above all, Bobby was very important to Lem personally. 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! To begin with, why would JFK give him a private room at the white house, to come and go at his leisure? When Jack discovered that Billings was gay once declining an amorous overture from Billings the friendship is thought to have gone on unharmed. In a third, the President is walking on the beach with the late Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, as they grieved the death of their premature son Patrick. Lem was born on April 15, 1916 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.. Lem is one of the famous and trending celeb who is popular for being a Celebrity. [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. Lem Billings relaxed on the Kennedys' Palm Beach estate the summer of 1936. [1] The Billings family were Episcopalians and Republicans.[2]. "[27] Arthur Schlesinger thought Billings "used to glare at me when we occasionally encountered each other in the company of JFK, and for a time I took this rather personally. A different side of JFK: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings met atChoate Rosemary Hall and became lifelong friends. He didn't want to share his friendship with Jack. (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. Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. Lem never really left Jacks orbit after boarding school. Criticisms from others in the Kennedy orbit insinuate that Jack took advantage of Lems love for him without reciprocating. 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. With that out of the way, their relationship continued essentially unchanged until JFK's assassination thirty years later.". 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. 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. He certainly didn't have the same interest in politics and women that Jack had. myocardial infarction. [6][7], In 1941, Billings failed medical tests required by the military. An autopsy report says Billings' cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. 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. 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Kennedy Anything Including Possible Affairs, oral history interview for the John F. Kennedy Library. He noted that everywhere Jack went, Billings was sure to follow, like a puppy dog. (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. I was pleased to note that things picked up after your arrival,' referring to Montgomery's battle with Rommel at El Alamein. [49], Friends from the 1970s confirmed that Billings was homosexual, but not open to discussing it. Poor guy. 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. [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. A queer perspective on JFK is not readily visible in official histories that feature iconic images and stories about one of the first administrations to offer the public ongoing access to the White Houses backstage. Jerry Oppenheimer is a New York Times bestselling author who has written two books about the Kennedys. 0 references. 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. 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. Published: 16:57 GMT, 9 June 2017 | Updated: 19:00 GMT, 9 June 2017. EXCLUSIVE: Head teacher of leading grammar school is sacked for sending parents a list of striking teachers. He helped handle even some of Jack's most personal affairs, Pitts writes in his book: "Jack's dates would be managed by Lem. He may have been the reason I never married.. 'Haven't heard a word from you,' Jack wrote. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Quirk had met Billings in the mid-Forties when both were volunteers in Jack Kennedy's first congressional campaign. John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings, right, who was a classmate from the Choate School and Princeton University, outside a drugstore, ca. ", 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. Billings kept the letters JFK wrote to him between 1934 and 1939, and he donated the entire collection to the Library in the 1970s. In her memoir, Times To Remember, published eleven years after Jack's assassination in Dallas in 1963, she 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. Click to browse the Lem Billings Personal Papers KLBPP-001-003-p0015. But the man married to Jackie Kennedy was quietly chided for his compulsive philandering. He escorted Mrs. Stephen Smith, sister of the late President, to . as not being gay since they only gave each other BJs (as in Lewinsky/Clinton sex?)! "[41] At the same time, he admitted that no one ever expressed the idea aloud during Kennedy's White House years. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to receive selections from new issues of Public Seminar. "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.". You can follow her on Twitter . 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. Wiggins was serving a 28 years . [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. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings (April 15, 1916 - May 28, 1981) was a prep school roommate and then lifelong close friend of President John F. Kennedy (May 29, 1917 - November 22, 1963). 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. 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. When the boy died at 4:19 a.m. Kennedy was clutching his little fingers. (Note my reply) I think the interview I have reference to is less than a year ago! 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. 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. In Jackies absence, Lem managed the Presidents dinner parties, social life and children. Published online July 6, 2017. 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. Oscar Cainer tells all. ', 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. "And everything ready for a big, big party.". This is fascinating, Claire. Eventually, the two friends made contact, however, and began exchanging letters just as they had when both were at home." 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Lem Billings was a lifelong friend of Kennedy's, beginning from when they were roommates at Choate, continuing til Kennedy's assassination in 1963. [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. 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. 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. Allegheny Cemetery. He remained in the closet until his death in. [54] Billings had his own room in the White House. While Billings' missive is long gone, a startled Kennedy responded, 'Please don't write to me on toilet paper anymore. 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 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? place of burial. . 'People think I'm a joke,' he once acknowledged. "Because of him, I was never lonely," Billings said once. During that time, he told researchers, "All the kids came over to see me. In the summer of 1937 Billings and Kennedy took a summer trip through Europe which solidified their friendship. On some weekends, Jack and Lem would go up there. "He needed Lem Billings to get around better than a trained nurse" that would have made his political career impossible. 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. And all the while, Lem Billings was there: waiting, serving, comforting and helping the Kennedy family adjust to the public glare. 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. 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. Jack, Lem, and Caroline enjoying the water, Hyannis Port, 1963. 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!' Their mothers just married the same man. The story about Lem Billings '39 and JFK was very interesting and even moving (cover story, April 12). He had clearly been adopted into the larger Kennedy clan, and Jackie drew him into her family circle as well. 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. Naval Academy. Criticisms from others in the Kennedy orbit insinuate that Jack took advantage of Lem's love for him without reciprocating. 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. 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. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he sometimes acted as escort for several of the Kennedy women. The young Kennedys took the casket and carried it around the gravesite before returning it to the burial plot. Felicia Farr m. 19622001 Cynthia Stone m. 19501956 Jack Lemmon / Wife He was 76. 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. [34] He joined the President's entourage for his tours of Europe in both 1961 and 1963. '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. 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. 'I would take the shuttle down to Washington, go to the White House and we would be picked up by helicopter there -- flown to Andrews (Air Force Base) and taken by Air Force One to Otis on the Cape. (Page 35), Jack and Lem in a Palm Beach photo booth just before their European tour, 1937, "Jack and Lem's summer in Europe began on July 1, 1937. 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. He was a beautiful baby," he ducked into a boiler room and wept. For many other Americans as well, Bobby became the last best hope for resurrecting Camelot, for a return to the kind of liberal idealism that Jack had epitomized.