Allegheny Cemetery is one of the largest and oldest burial grounds in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I have no doubt the same was true in American upper-crust boarding schools in the single-sex days. 'Dear Mrs. Billings. Prince Andrew has 'offered to manage prestigious Royal estates including Balmoral but King Charles has told PLATELL'S PEOPLE: Yes, Madonna toyboys are fun but not if you value your dignity. '"[39], Most recognized that Billings and Kennedy had been friends from youth and did not question their relationship or Billings' presence. Have you heard from him?' I am gay and this relationship was more than relieving sexual tension! Criticisms from others in the Kennedy orbit insinuate that Jack took advantage of Lem's love for him without reciprocating. You can follow her on Twitter. Kennedy and Billings remained intimate in part by managing Jacks sex life, his career, and his family, together. 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. After the assassination of Robert Kennedy, a distraught Ethel turned over her son, Bobby Jr., to Billings to act as his surrogate father, sparking her brother-in-law, Terrien RFK's roommate at the University of Virginia law school to wonder why she would allow 'Lem to have such an intimate relationship' with her troubled third born, who would go on to have a a bizarre relationship with Billings, including the taking of drugs. 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 From 1933 to 1946, Billings and JFK exchanged letters, with Jack often antagonizing Lem in the correspondence. 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. From there we would helicopter right to his father's front lawn. [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. Because of him, I was never lonely, Billings said once. Use Restriction Status: None. "[44], Many testify to Billings' wit and ability to help the President relax. 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. Witch, Harridan, Harpy, and new insults like Karen and Terf. He might have been the reason I never got married. Release of Secret JFK Assassination Records Delayed by Biden, Angering Some of the Kennedys. myocardial infarction. "'Of course, there was always Cape Cod in Massachusetts when the president wanted to be near the water,' Lem remarked. On March 4, 1961, The New York Times reported, Billings even escorted two baby hamsters, Debbie and Billie, from New York to Washington, for young Caroline. 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. "He needed Lem Billings to get around better than a trained nurse" that would have made his political career impossible. 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. Our most accurate accounts of JFKs emotional carelessness are not from Lem, who was loyal to his friend until his death, but from women who later came forward about affairs that now, in the era of #MeToo, sometimes raise harsh questions about whether some of these relationships were abusive. Otherwise he attended without female accompaniment. [10] In 1944 he received a commission in the U.S. cause of death. 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 borrowed the other half from an inheritance I was about to receive from my grandmother after I graduated from college,' remembered Lem. 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. [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. 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! 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. "He was in a very deep depression; sometimes didn't want to live," Pitts told the New Haven Register in 2007. Kirk LeMoyne Billings and John F. Kennedy. (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. Lem Billings and John F. Kennedy met as teenagers at their Connecticut prep school and remained lifelong friends. 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. 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. After finding the body and returning the heroin . Sometimes Jack bitched Lem out one letter saying, "Of all the cheap shit I have. Co-executive Editor, Public Seminar and Professor of History, The New School for Social Research, Photo credit: Cecil Stoughton/Wikimedia Commons. "[29] Historian Sally Bedell Smith compared him to Leonard Zelig, a nondescript character in Woody Allen's 1983 film who is always present in the back row at major events. Details of Lem Billings and JFK's three decade relationship are revealed in 'Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And The Dark Side Of The Dream'. 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. 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. 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. Still, the Kennedy clan accepted even welcomed Lem Billings into their exclusive inner-circle, practically adopting him, and he became a part of the family. Lem Billings is a well known Celebrity. 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. [28] One presidential aide later said that "some people saw him so much they thought he was the Secret Service. 'Haven't heard a word from you,' Jack wrote. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he sometimes acted as escort for several of the Kennedy women. He had interests of his own that Jack didn't necessarily share. I don't think it's true that he did not have views of his own, as some have said. "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. ", 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 had once told Bobby that. Jackie and Vidal werent cousins. 'They make fun of my voice. Eventually, the two friends made contact, however, and began exchanging letters just as they had when both were at home." . "Because of him," Billings once said. (Note my reply) I think the interview I have reference to is less than a year ago! Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. I have been studying human sexuality for 25 years and am a Stanford grad and track athlete. As Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee recalled much later, "I suppose it's known that Lem was gay.. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. But this may, in fact, just be gossip. The first time Kirk Lemoyne 'Lem' Billings was . 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. 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. 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. Sprawling home where JonBenet Ramsey was found murdered in 1996 is listed for sale for $7 MILLION by current Royal Mail increase price of first class stamp by 15p to 1.10 in record-breaking hike. In which 20 year old John F Kennedy's best friend shows up on his doorstep one evening. The young Kennedys took the casket and carried it around the gravesite before returning it to the burial plot. 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. (Page 276). 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. 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. [68] His dying wish was for the young Kennedy men to carry his casket to its final resting place. Ethel's alcoholic, philandering brother, George Skakel Jr., actually booted Billings in the a** at the church, knocking him into the aisle. Claire Potter is professor of history at The New School, and Executive Editor of Public Seminar. Both Jack and Lem were crazy about dogs and soon fell totally in love with little Dunker. 384 pages, $26.95 THE OLD black-and-white photograph shows two good-looking young men sitting close together on the back bumper of a car, their fingers touching gently as they fondle a dachshund pup. 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 Addison's disease. "Because of him, I was never lonely. A crew jock, he met Jack at Choate, a boys' boarding school, in Wallingford, Connecticut (it is now co-ed). 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. Born in 1916, he was the son of a Pittsburgh doctor. He remained in the closet until his death in 1981 at the age of 65, according to Pitts. [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. "Because of him, I was never lonely," Billings said once. Sitelinks. Len Hauss, a rugged mainstay in Washington's offensive line who started 192 consecutive games at center in a 14-year pro football career that led him to the Super Bowl and five Pro Bowl . '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? 'People think I'm a joke,' he once acknowledged. "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. Williams, a handsome gay southerner, had already written seven hit plays. [64], Billings' behavior changed drastically in the late 1960s. (Page 24), Lem and Bobby, Waterville Valley, N.H., circa 1967"'When Bobby joined the political fray, no one was happier than Lem. ", 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. The president was famously believed to have affairs during their marriage. He sent one letter to Lem's mother addressed to the American Field Service PO Box in New York. Lem felt that the physical regimen at the Kennedy vacation homes was even more exacting than that at Choate. Have a nice one! 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. Billings reportedly told Kennedy of his romantic intentions in prep school (JFK pictured chatting with Marilyn Monroe and Robert F Kennedy). As we both know, homosexual relationships in English boarding schools were put down to adolescent hijinks and men *grew out of them*. 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. Indeed, it often seems that Kennedy did treat people who loved him for granted. Access Restriction Status: Open. 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? However, an earlier book by Hollywood writer Lawrence Quirk alleges that Billings was not rebuffed. 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. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. In 1958, when Kennedy decided to launch a campaign for the presidency from his Massachusetts Senate seat, the United States had not yet experienced a sexual revolution that would challenge and change many people. As they became close, Billings confided that his relationship with Kennedy was, in fact, sexual, to a point. (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. LeMoyne Billings and Ethel Kennedy attend Liza Minnelli Concert on May 23, 1970 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. We might even attach the adjectives exclusive and romantic to this youthful friendship. 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. Bobby Kennedy Jr. gave the eulogy. 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.