While web sleuths and conspiracy theorists were looking for the person who killed her . Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. [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. He didn't want to share his friendship with Jack. He had interests of his own that Jack didn't necessarily share. "Jack was anxious to reach Lem and to find out how he was doing. In which 20 year old John F Kennedy's best friend shows up on his doorstep one evening. However, he avoided the notoriety of coming out even after Kennedys death, perhaps because he feared that it would draw more negative attention to the extended Kennedy family, which soon struggled with a range of scandals: Chappaquidick, alcoholism, divorce and drugs were but a few. myocardial infarction. (Note my reply) I think the interview I have reference to is less than a year ago! Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want to remind everyone of that today. Sitelinks. Jack" he said as he gazed at him softly, It's been a long time. 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. Yesterday was Jack's birthday. Lem had caught a cold in July by swimming in the Loire River at Chenonceau and Jack developed his own problems in Southampton on August 27 while saying goodbye to his mother and siblings Joe and Kick as they departed for America. Jack & Lem: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship, John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings by David Pitts Carroll & Graf. and yet you still think JFK was alive in December 1963! Billings could best be described as Kennedy's "wingman", closest male friend, and boon companion as they moved into adulthood. Wikipedia (3 entries) edit. "He may have been the reason I never married." This essay was originally published at OutHistory.org on November 22, 2013; it has been updated and re-edited. Billings served with Sargent Shriver as a trustee for the Kennedy family trusts. 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. In 1958, her cousin Gore Vidal brought playwright Tennessee Williams to the Kennedy home in Palm Beach, FL. 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. Kennedy first met Billings when they were teenagers at a school called Choate. You can follow her on Twitter . Lem Billings is a well known Celebrity. In many ways, Lem was like a father to me and he was the best friend I will ever have.' 1 leading cause of death among Native Americans in Montana during 2020 and the third-leading cause of death for the general population. Oscar Cainer tells all. Date (s) of Materials: 25 March 1964. I have also studied the forensics of the assassination for 21 years. [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. 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. [37], Billings' role as "first friend" was assessed by many observers at the time and since. The evidence presented indicates that Jack found out . 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. Health Insurance data come from Health Insurance Coverage: Early Release of Estimates From the National Health Interview Survey, 2014 pdf icon; 2014 birth data come from National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. And for Lem and Mark Chesmore, there's nothing more they enjoy doing than participating in their chosen sport of boxing. Collier and Horowitz described Billings, later in life, as invariably enmeshed in his late friend's larger family. [24], Billings visited the White House for most weekends during the Kennedy Administration. ", As Pitts writes, Jack "wasn't going to let anyone control his life, and he certainly wasn't going to let anyone choose his friends.". "He needed Lem Billings to get around better than a trained nurse" that would have made his political career impossible. "'I'm sure he's already organizing everything in heaven so it will be completely ready for us . Later Years. 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. "[38] Another said: "Members of the president's staff thought of him as a 'handy old piece of furniture. Needless to say, JFK may have had, in a sense, two widows. When JFK was assassinated, he turned his attention to his nephew Bobby Kennedy Jr. As they became close, Billings confided that his relationship with Kennedy was, in fact, sexual, to a point. Lem Billings Is JFK's 'Go-Between' During Courtship with Jackie as Imagined in New Novel PEOPLE has an exclusive first look at Louis Bayard's upcoming Jackie & Me By Sam Gillette Published on. 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. He was also plagued by ill health. While at Choate, they formed a club and called themselves "The Muckers". (Page 276). 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?'. He once called Billings the 'chief f****t at Camelot.' 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. 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. Inside Matt Hancock's 41-hour battle to save his career when photo of 'a snog and heavy petting' with aide Will Vladimir Putin's empress pay the ultimate price for his war on the West? Lem Billings passed away from a heart attack at 65 in 1981. Lem Billings is a member of famous Celebrity list. Author Louis Bayard focuses much of his upcoming novel Jackie & Me on the relationship between Billings and Kennedy, too. He might have been the reason I never got married. 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. 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. 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. 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. Have a nice one! JFK appeared to be in love with the idea of Billings being in love with him. 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. 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. 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. Their lifelong relationship caused some of the presidents advisers to fear Russian agents may use the information as blackmail. 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? 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. Now thats very exciting! said Kennedy with a grin.. Billings, for his part, never married and eventually became a marketing executive and worked on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/661850801540d07650fabf52ced798bc30b638466ac906855c1e19da231d68b5.jpg. Here is a look at their friendship. How remorseless Stephen Bear continued his arrogant antics up until Do not sell or share my personal information. A Catholic couple, the Kennedys hoped for more children: Jack had been one of nine, while Bobby and Ethel Kennedy had eleven. Billings as a teenager was 6' 2", weighed 175 pounds, and was the strongest member of the Choate crew. It impressed . 1934: Young JFK in hospital The young JFK, messing around with Lem Billings during their Choate years In the summer of 1934, future United States president John F Kennedy was in his junior year at the prestigious Choate School in Connecticut. [44] "Jack made a big difference in my life," Billings said. The president was famously believed to have affairs during their marriage. 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. [51] Red Fay, a friend of the President from his World War II service, said of Billings: "I didn't see anything overtly gay about him; I think he was neutral. We might even call it a romantic friendship. 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. [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. 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. About Lem Billings A long time best friend and alleged secret Gay lover of President JFK and later a surrogate father for Robert Kennedy Jr. after the murder of his father. Claire Potteris professor of history at The New School, and Executive Editor of Public Seminar. In 1965, Mrs. Kennedy invited Billings to accompany her and her children to England for the unveiling of a memorial to Kennedy at Runnymede. He escorted Mrs. Stephen Smith, sister of the late President, to . He became Jackies confidant and the trusted recipient of her views about the other women who flitted in and out of her husbands life. [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. [68] His dying wish was for the young Kennedy men to carry his casket to its final resting place. 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. The Cold War was still raging, and there was fear Russian agents might use the friendship against Kennedy. In the epidemiological framework of the Global Burden of Disease study each death has one specific cause. 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Kennedy Anything Including Possible Affairs, oral history interview for the John F. Kennedy Library. 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. 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. Wiggins was serving a 28 years . Allegheny Cemetery is one of the largest and oldest burial grounds in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Having been given special access to the Billings papers by Robert Kennedy, Jr., Pitts was either unable to verify a sexual relationship, or he was unwilling to cite his source. Deadline reported in 2018 that it was to be the basis for a forthcoming boipic as well. "Because of him, I was never lonely," Billings said once. 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. The elder Kennedys began to discourage the boys from associating with Billings because of his excessive recreational drug use (including alcohol). 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. ', But Billings was embarrassed about his effeminate mannerisms he'd remain publicly closeted for his lifetime. 'Dear Mrs. Billings. 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. it would not surprise me knowing how most of the Kennedys (including ole Joe!) [1] The Billings family were Episcopalians and Republicans.[2]. Published online July 6, 2017. [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. His latest book, The Kardashians: An American Drama, will be published in September. As we both know, homosexual relationships in English boarding schools were put down to adolescent hijinks and men *grew out of them*. Like the rest of the free world, Billings was devastated when President Kennedy was assassinated. 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. 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. Jackie and Vidal werent cousins. If you want to discuss this further my e-mail:pscheck2@gmail.com). Lem Billings may have been present for, but just outside the frame, of these pictures. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. place of burial. Not just any member, either, he was an assassin and the leader of a Viet Cong death squad who had been targeting and killing South Vietnamese National Police officers and their families. I am gay and this relationship was more than relieving sexual tension! Witch, Harridan, Harpy, and new insults like Karen and Terf. 64, No. 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. When Jack discovered that Billings was gay once declining an amorous overture from Billings the friendship is thought to have gone on unharmed. They remained close until Kennedy's assassinationBillings had his own room in the White House, and Joe Kennedy Sr. called him "a second son." (Which is odd considering JFK . [48] Billings saw the President for the last time when they dined at the White House with Greta Garbo on November 13, 1963, nine days before the President's assassination in Dallas. Each column is a city, with each color representing . 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! Another shows older daughter Caroline, who became the American Ambassador to Japan under Barack Obama, learning to ride her pony. 0 references. 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.