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. As they became close, Billings confided that his relationship with Kennedy was, in fact, sexual, to a point. "And I think he might have been, honestly. While the Kennedy family had accepted Billings into their inner circle because of his tight friendship with JFK, Ethel Kennedy's family, the scandalous Republican Skakels of Greenwich, Connecticut, weren't so accepting. Gay History: John F. Kennedy Had A Gay Best Friend Who - Timalderman . ', Hejduk also immediately perceived that the relationship between Bobby and Billings 'was probably one of those unrequited-love kind of things.'. Billings and. As one source told me, "Young Bobby replaced Jack in Lem's heart of hearts.". "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. The biographer Sally Bedell Smith, referred to Billings in one of her books as 'probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows.'. It only got worse with the drugs. But Kennedy's reaction to Billings gay come-on soon changed and he became more amenable to his friend's advances, according to the writer Lawrence J. Quirk, author of 'The Kennedys in Hollywood.' I'd known him then for a few months and knew he'd do anything. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings and Mary Lasker attend a party at the New York City home of Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. On June 14, 1977. She contacted the headmaster on several occasions to ask about the boy's well- being. 'Everybody was at least smoking pot - everybody - and a lot of people were doing LSD and other recreational stuff,' recalled classmate John Seibel, who became an attorney. Billings had once told Bobby that when. Mark Bontecou, a scion of the wealthy Bontecou family of Millbrook, which had once owned a good part of the land on which Millbrook School resided, also recalled how Billings was a constant companion of Bobby's during the school year. Pin on JFK - pinterest.com We're due at Bobby and Ethel's that night, but Jack instead cuts across Chain Bridge. The Once and Future Kennedys - The Washington Post 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 and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship" Kennedy knew Billings was in love with him (Billings declared his love and was rejected by Kennedy) and Kennedy liked that, the attention and knowing the power he has over billings also his wife Jackie Kennedy hated Billings and hated that he and . finances. I say. Billings Funeral Home - Woodward Add Photos Add a Memory Henry Leroy Ray Henry Leroy Ray Woodward - Henry was born June 11,1955 in Amarillo TX. Copyright 2022 by Louis Bayard. to the arrival of the Mayflower and were ardent abolitionists who championed the
Among the snapshots is one that shows a handsome pre-presidential Kennedy sunning himself, sprawled on a chaise at Patriarch Joe Kennedy's Palm Beach estate. Bayard, the bestselling author of Courting Mr. Lincoln and The Pale Blue Eye, tells PEOPLE he was "agnostic" about the Kennedy clan until he learned about Billings' personal history. Try our online preplanning tool. The hearing, lasting less than a half-hour, was held in private. Mr. Billings was active in all of John Kennedy's campaigns as well as those of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Ancestors. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Ken Bruce finishes his 30-year tenure as host of BBC Radio 2, Moment teenager crashes into back of lorry after 100mph police race, Alex Murdaugh unanimously found GUILTY of murder of wife and son, Isabel Oakeshott clashes with Nick Robinson over Hancock texts, Family of a 10-month-old baby filmed vaping open up, Ukrainian soldier takes out five tanks with Javelin missiles. 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. The only other adult who was practically a member of the Kennedy family and who was concerned enough about Bobby's welfare to check in on him was the Kennedy family nurse, Luella Hennessey-Donovan. Billings kept the letters JFK wrote to him between 1934 and 1939, and he donated the entire collection to the Library in the 1970s. Published in The Elkhart Truth from Feb. 20 to Feb. 21, 2023. As for Kennedy himself, Vidal asserted that the president "felt quite comfortable in the company of homosexuals as long as they were smart enough to hold his interest.". 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. Never-before-seen footage captures JFK on vacation months before Sixteen days after RFK was buried, Ethel and her brood were aboard a yacht destined for Hyannis Port and the Kennedy compound. Fanning, a self- described wild child at the time, recalled Bobby's visits to the pit, which he had witnessed, as 'grotesque. For the first time, I begin to wonder if Miss Bouvier is nervousthough it's difficult to confirm because she has a small voice and the wind seems to slap every word back down her gullet. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. The Letter JFK Wrote His Secret Lover Before He Died, 5. of 1 Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. This is one of the questions Louis Bayard raises in his upcoming novel Jackie & Me, which will be published by Algonquin Books in June 2022.
11 Strict Rules That Elon Musk Makes His Girlfriends & Wives Follow, Justin Bieber Suspected As The Father Of Kourtney Kardashian's Son Reign (Instead Of Scott Disick), Why Kate Moss Was 'Scared' & 'Couldn't Get Out Of Bed For Weeks' After Working With Mark Wahlberg. "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. When he was in his late 20s, he'd be arrested for heroin possession, after overdoing on an airplane flight, on his way to get help for his addiction. While Billings' missive is long gone, a startled Kennedy responded, "Please don't write to me on toilet paper anymore. Lem Billings '39's Life | Princeton Alumni Weekly through his life. I still to this day see him standing there in his black necktie that he wore every day over a blue oxford Brooks Brothers shirt and a beat-up tweed jacket, and wearing the wildest bell-bottoms that were purple with Day-Glo green stripes like he was some soul band guy, and in his funky boots. Billings enthused to RFK and Ethel in his high-pitched voice, which RFK made fun of behind his back. The one iconic photo of President John F. Kennedy up close and personal with a woman other than Jackie shows him and his attorney general brother, Robert, coming on to curvaceous Marilyn Monroe at a party, reports Daily Mail. As depicted in Netflix's The Crown, Queen Elizabeth II did actually host President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jackie Kennedy at Buckingham Palace in 1961. He was by all accounts JFK's best. 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. Her general lilt, as best I can tell, is interrogative, but why should that be a surprise? And I think Billings had a way of editing things - painting the picture of Bobby's performance smoother than it really was. He attended one of the parents' weekends, but was never seen on campus again. The eyes even wider. His name was Lem Billings. Adapted from New York Times bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer's explosive new book, Mom who lost both sons to fentanyl blasts laughing Biden, Missing hiker buried under snow forces arm out to wave to helicopter, Pavement where disabled woman gestured at cyclist before fatal crash, Isabel Oakeshott receives 'menacing' message from Matt Hancock, Pro-Ukrainian drone lands on Russian spy planes exposing location, 'Buster is next!' TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. He was born in Pittsburgh and graduated from Princeton. In Lem, Jack found a confidant and caretaker; Jack was frequently ill while at Choate, but Lem kept his spirits high . After Jack Kennedy's election to the presidency, Billings was a constant presence and overnight guest at the White House. Writer Gore Vidal once called Billings the chief f****t at Camelot and said Kennedy felt quite comfortable in the company of homosexuals as long as they were smart enough to hold his interest.. Jackie, I imagine, is now asking the name of Bobby's daughter or wondering if Eunice will be there and which one is Pat? Sam Gillette is a books Writer/Reporter for People.com and People Magazine. 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. While Billings' missive is long gone, a startled Kennedy responded, 'Please don't write to me on toilet paper anymore. Lem Billings relaxed on the Kennedys' Palm Beach estate the summer of 1936. Inside the relationship between JFK and Lem Billings From all accounts, they became fast friends, drawn to each other by their
If you have recently lost a family member or friend, we hope that you will accept our condolences. Brother of Frederic Billings Jr. [spouse (s) unknown] [children unknown] Died 28 May 1981 at age 65 in New York City, New York, United States. Pitts said. A planetarium-like darkness, with the two of them swimming like moons. After Jack Kennedy's election to the presidency, Billings was a constant presence and overnight guest at the White House. ', About the odd KennedyBillings relationship, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, one of JFK's five sisters, once remarked: 'It's hard to describe it as just friendship; it was a complete liberation of the spirit. Nature rushes forth, and the car dealers and the Hot Shoppes fall away before dogwoods and tulip trees, tatters of forsythia. The Brodes friends included a number of gay men, among them such openly gay politicians as Barney Frank and Gerry Stuuds. Miss Bouvier is a destination. RELATED VIDEO: Carly Simon Opens Up on Unlikely Friendship with Jackie Kennedy and Jackie's Thoughts on JFK, Aristotle Onassis & More, By now, of course, I'm extricating myself from the front of the car and inserting myself with no great grace into the back, and the operation is so consuming that, for a second or two, I lose all consciousness of her, and then I hear her sayin that voice, like a ghost whispering through the pipes"You must be Lem.". 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. Bobby's next school on his difficult road to a high school diploma was Pomfret, which was having its own troubles. 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. "Can't beat a good Irish pub" - David Beckham celebrates son's birthday in Dublin, UPDATE: Alex Murdaugh sentenced to life in prison for murdering wife and son, WATCH: Irish bishop's funeral held in Los Angeles today, Brian Donnelly, Irish American visa hero, has died, Sunak's Northern Ireland deal is a solid one, Irish bishops memorial services underway in LA as murder investigation continues, Ireland named one of the safest places to travel in Europe. All I can make out through my encrusted specs are a row of white pilasters and a front portico. 'I can't say that I saw him put a needle in his arm,' he stated, 'but he talked like he was and he bragged about it. They shared an insatiable intellectual curiosity, a robust sense of humor, and a disdain for petty rules. 'I've just met the smartest little boy! When Joey Brode heard the story years later, she said that what Bobby had done, if true, was 'disgusting. Just a week after his father's funeral, at his brother David's thirteenth birthday party at a grim Hickory Hill, Bobby had spiked everyone's milk with a laxative. Introduction: My name is Rubie Ullrich, I am a enthusiastic, perfect, tender, vivacious, talented, famous, delightful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you. Remembering JFK's Bond with His Boyhood Best Friend, Who Never Got Over the Assassination, Robert McNamara's Son Craig Remembers Playing with JFK Jr. and Caroline Kennedy After JFK's Death, PEOPLE Picks the Best New Books of the Week, Jackie Kennedy Knew JFK Relationship Would Involve 'Heartbreak' & More Details from New Book, How Lady Bird Johnson and a Pregnant Jackie Kennedy Worked Together: 'The Wren Protected the Dove', Santana Talks New Album 'Africa Speaks', 20th Anniversary of 'Smooth' and Return to Woodstock, The Truth About Jackie Kennedy's Turbulent, Loving and Dramatic Bond with Sister Lee Radziwill, Happily Ever After: See All of the Celebrity Weddings of 2021. "And we could have made a very different choice. 'But Lem,' he clearly recalled, 'was around a lot, and we as faculty were told who he was and that he was Bobby's caretaker, as it were, in a loco parentis kind of role. 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. 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. I'm not that kind of boy.. For Billings, a year older than the future president, it was love at first sight and from the instant they met Billings was sexually attracted to the handsome scion of America's so-called royal family. JFK appeared to be in love with the idea of Billings being in love with him. In the early spring of 1971, Bobby was being carefully watched by the administration because of drugs. He had his own room in the
Gore Vidal, the writer who claimed he viewed homosexuality as normal as heterosexuality, disparaged the JFK-Billings relationship during the Kennedy administration. 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. 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.. 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. Ethel's alcoholic, philandering brother, George Skakel Jr., actually booted Billings in the a** at the church, knocking him into the aisle. ', 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. quoted from the book: "Jack made a big difference in my life,"
Lem Billings andBobby Kennedy Jr became close after JFK's death and allegedly took drugs together. Take a look inside Dublin's most stylish townhouse, Number 31. Lem P. Speer, 93, died peacefully in his home on November 20, 2021. Kennedy.). In 1962, the Queen, then 35, invited Jackie to a lunch when the First Lady was in London visiting her sister, Lee Radziwill, who lived there with her husband Prince Stanislaw Radziwill. 1934: John F Kennedy in hospital: enemas, porn and blondes - Past Peculiar When Bobby Kennedy,
'There was no gnashing of teeth and sobbing in the context of his leaving. It was all quite bizarre. guest every weekend of my married life." Michelotti-Sawyers Mortuary and Crematory is a locally and independently owned and operated full service funeral home and crematory. A name he kept stumbling across was Lem Billings, who was identified as John Kennedy's longtime best friend. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom was unable to personally travel to Kennedy's funeral because of her pregnancy with Prince Edward but later described "the unprecedented intensity of that wave of grief, mixed with something akin to despair, which swept over our people at the news of President Kennedy's Jacqueline Bouvier and U.S. Representative John F. Kennedy belonged to the same social circle and were formally introduced by a mutual friend, journalist Charles L. Bartlett, at a dinner party in May 1952. By Sydney Taylor Written on Nov 06, 2021. The funeral will be held in Pittsburgh. He noted that everywhere Jack went, Billings was sure to follow, like a puppy dog. All the Kennedys were very much aware of Billings's sexual preference, or suspected it, accepted it, and welcomed him into their exclusive inner circle - practically adopted him - although the patriarch Joe Kennedy found him annoying at times. Irelands most popular baby names of 2022 - by county! Kirk LeMoyne Lem Billings (April 15, 1916 May 28, 1981) was a close friend of President John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family. a commission in the U.S. President Jimmy Carter broke royal protocol by kissing the Queen Mother on the lips during his visit in 1977. Billings, LeMoyne Date (s) of Materials: 11 February 1942-31 December 1946 Folder Description: This folder contains letters to John F. Kennedy from his friend Kirk Lemoyne (Lem) Billings on subjects such as Kennedy's health, Kennedy's Naval service, and the Pacific Ocean Theater of World War II. Kennedy and Billings met in 1933 in their sophomore year at Choate Rosemary Hall, an exclusive Connecticut prep school. Sydney Taylor is a writer who focuses on News and Entertainment topics. Lem Billings and John F. Kennedy met as teenagers at their Connecticut prep school and remained lifelong 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. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he sometimes acted as escort for several of the Kennedy women . Obituaries act as quiet reminders to help us to remember them and all we enjoyed with them while they were with us, a celebration of their life. The enthusiastic pre-adolescent regaled Billings - a New York advertising executive, one of John F. Kennedy's closest confidantes and a closeted homosexual - with stories about his pet collection. Somebody who was also not of the Kennedys, but very much wanted to be one of them. him to drink. JFK's Best Friend Lem: Transcript. John F. Kennedy with Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. I let him down.'. He has really been part of "our family" since that first time he showed up at our house as one of "Jack's surprises". For all I know, she's speculating about the Washington Senators' pennant chances. JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century 1917-1956, 6. '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, he said. Billings made his desire known while the two were still at school by writing Kennedy a love note on a piece of toilet paper. The point is there's no way of knowing what they're saying, and Jack sometimes gets cross if I talk too much with his dates (unless I'm doing something useful like showing them the door). He was kind of sinister. Lem Billings. 'Bobby would take his hawk and go hunting rats in the midst of the rotting cow carcasses and he sort of reveled in how off- the-wall that was. According to Billings' biographer David Pitts, Once JFK decided that Billings was his best friend like it or leave, everybody in the family sort of fell in line with that. "They make fun of my voice. Remembering JFK's Bond with His Boyhood Best Friend, Who Never Got Over Lem was John F Kennedy's best friend. Get out of my life.'. From the book Jackie & Me by Louis Bayard. Son of Frederick Tremaine Billings and Romaine Elizabeth (LeMoyne) 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. Jack and Lem on Apple Books 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. But the one thing that struck me even at that tender age was that I felt Lem was just obsessed with Bobby. There was a fear Russian agents could use the relationship to blackmail Kennedy, says Oppenheimer. 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. at a General Shoe store, Emerson Drug Company VP, and an advertising executive
See the article in its original context from. JFK's Friendship with Lem Billings: His Best Friend Never Got Over Something quickens in the column of her neck. As for Kennedy himself, Vidal asserted that the president 'felt quite comfortable in the company of homosexuals as long as they were smart enough to hold his interest. The first time Kirk Lemoyne 'Lem' Billings was introduced to Bobby Kennedy Jr. the two spent several hours alone in the boy's room at fabled Hickory Hill, Robert and Ethel Kennedy's historic, sprawling estate, in bucolic McLean, Virginia. "He [Billings] was a witness to so much of what was going on. The young JFK, messing around with Lem Billings during their Choate years. You didn't want to get too close to him.'. If you need a funeral home you can trust, call today. Extent: 82 digital pages Collection: In his heartfelt and rather candid eulogy, Bobby 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. 25 Things You May Not Know About JFK - Purple Clover A wider smile than I would have guessed possible. 'It was clear to me,' said Miesmer, 'that Bobby felt like an outsider, so he felt way more comfortable with the black kidshis father was a champion of helping blacks, so this kid who just lost his father goes to a school where there's a presence of black kids and he felt more comfortable with them.'. 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? The more interested they appear to be, the more the boys will understand they don't have to be, in themselves, interesting, which is a relief to both parties. Jackie Kennedy, who liked Billings for
", 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.". He may have been the
They both took drugs. Monroe and JFK were first introduced in 1954 by Peter Lawford, JFK's brother-in-law. But that's the kind of kid he was, deep into bad stuff.'. "You learn a lot about how he met Jackie, about how intrigued he was by her, how intrigued he was by them," says Bayard of listening to Billing's testimony stored in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. He's taken over."'. JFK's Queer White House - Public Seminar
Then, when Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, his wife Ethel Skakel had Billings act as the surrogate father to her son Bobby Jr. Lem P Speer <p>Lem P. Speer, 93, died peacefully in his home on November 20, 2021. Lem had extremely poor eye sight and a high-pitched voice. Lem even wrote John a love note on toilet paper . Jack Johns. Arrangements are pending at Billings Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Elkhart. Brode had liberal views, didn't mind that Bobby smoked pot with Lem Billings in Bobby's room. However, the sixth-season premiere showed in fact that the heroin fiasco was . Bobby Kennedy Jr's surrogate father was JFK's gay best friend During their wedding in Greenwich, Connecticut, Ethels brother knocked Billings down the aisle at the church. He had an older sister, Ruth (Speer) Steele, older brother, Eugene "Bud" Speer, and younger half-brother Lawrence "Larry" Payant. Quirk immediately pegged Billings as gay, noting his 'high, screechy laugh,' and 'high nasal whine of a voice.' , How old was the Queen when she met JFK? Lem had several jobs including selling Coca-Cola dispensers to drugstores, working
Although Mr. Billings never served the President in an official capacity, he was a frequent guest at the White House. Lem Billings, from a distinguished old American Protestant family, was taller, bigger, stronger, with a high-pitched voice and a loud laugh. 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 .