In "Jack and Lem", author David Pitts looks at the relationship between the late president and Kirk LeMoyne Billings or "Lem". And, say those close to him, Billings never, ever got over how his friend was assassinated one sunny day in Dallas exactly 58 years ago. I really got to know them well. As Vice President at the Emerson Drug Company in Baltimore, he was responsible for inventing the 1950s fad drink Fizzies by adding a fruit flavor to disguise the sodium citrate taste. [18], In 1960, on leave from his job, he worked on Kennedy's presidential campaign. (Page 213), "Jack made a big difference in my life. I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity.]. From the time John F. Kennedy and Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings met at Choate, until the President's assassination thirty years later, Jack and Lem remained best friends. Jack and Lem : John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings: The Untold Story of an Jack and Lem, as a reviewer for The New York Daily News put it in 1996, engaged in the kind of sexual experimentation not unknown at all-boys boarding schools.. JFK Tapes - Boston & New York (Lem Billings) - YouTube 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. 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?'. As we both know, homosexual relationships in English boarding schools were put down to adolescent hijinks and men *grew out of them*. After saying in a quiet voice, "He put up quite a fight. And did he personally lend a hand from time to time? I don't think it's true that he did not have views of his own, as some have said. [68] His dying wish was for the young Kennedy men to carry his casket to its final resting place. 12 pdf icon; leading cause of death data, including firearm, homicide, and drug poisoning mortality data, and infant mortality . A crew jock, he met Jack at Choate, a boys boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut (it is now co-ed). 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. 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. The Depression had hurt the Billings family financially, and Lem Billings was at Choate on scholarship. Intimate relationship between JFK and his gay friend 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. [55] Kennedy knew that homosexual behavior on the part of Billings had been revealed by a fellow Choate student during their years there. It impressed . [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. He noted that everywhere Jack went, Billings was sure to follow, like a puppy dog. I'd read a bit about Lem Billings in various Kennedy bios . I have no doubt the same was true in American upper-crust boarding schools in the single-sex days. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. They were bound together by a love of fun and practical jokes, resentment of Choate, and envy of their higher-achieving elder siblings -- Joe, Jack's brother, and Josh, Lem's brother." But the man married to Jackie Kennedy was quietly chided for his compulsive philandering. Quirk immediately pegged Billings as gay, noting his 'high, screechy laugh,' and 'high nasal whine of a voice.' [12], From 1946 to 1948, Billings attended Harvard Business School and earned an MBA. Bobby Kennedy Jr. gave the eulogy. 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. As of 2018 Lem Billings is 65 years (age at death) years old. Didnt Lem confess to a friend that he loved JFK? He remained in the closet until his death in. 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. 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. . A telephone conversation between President Kennedy and Lem Billings. You can follow her on Twitter. "I just became fascinated with Lem because he was a closeted but as they used to say 'practicing homosexual,' and he was very much part of the inner Kennedy circle from very early in his life," Bayard said. 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. 25 Things You May Not Know About JFK - Purple Clover He might have been the reason I never got married. Soon I discovered that he glared with equal suspicion at anyone whose friendship with JFK postdated his own. I'm not that kind of boy.' Allegheny Cemetery. By the time he became president, however, that revolution had been launched: the birth control pill, developed in the 1950s, became widely available in the 1960s and, more importantly, in 1964, Life magazine would publish a major photo essay about gay mens bars in San Francisco. 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. Vidal thought Jacqueline Kennedy thought Billings "was kind of a nothing but Jack needed him and she was practical. 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. (Page 53), Jack, Lem, and Dunker, the dog they bought on their European tour in 1937"Jack and Lem failed to make any friends in Germany, unlike in the other countries they visited, except one -- Dunker, a lovable Dachshund that they ran into on their way to Nuremberg. 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. Harvard University. Although Alford refused, she did not always have the self-confidence to say no: earlier, she had fellated a staff member in Jacks presence. Wiggins was serving a 28 years . 0 references. He claimed he had no idea who the Kennedys were, but they wanted to meet Williams, and Vidal produced him. educated at. Because of him, I was never lonely, Billings said once. Lem Billings is a well known Celebrity. He was by all accounts JFK's best friend . In 1964, Billings was named to head a ten-person committee to select a memorial to Kennedy to be placed in the Kennedy Center. Murder of Curtis Lemansky | The Shield Wiki | Fandom And the White House itself seems to have been welcoming to other non-heteronormative men in the Kennedy years. Oscar Cainer tells all. Did JFK And Lem Bellings Have A Relationship? Details Of - YourTango His father was a prominent physician and a graduate of the U.S. I'm enclosing a letter to Lem, which I wish you would forward, as I haven't any idea where he is. Perhaps, given his deep personal knowledge of the President and his friendship with the First Lady, he even gave directions as the photographer snapped the candid shots that would charm both the nation and historians. ", 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 was a longtime Kennedy family friend, working to preserve the slain president's legacy even after death. According to author Christopher Bram (2012), Vidal told the playwright he shouldnt cruise our next president, then repeated the remark to Kennedy. William Lemp III died an untimely death of a heart attack at the age of 42. (Note my reply) I think the interview I have reference to is less than a year ago! The first lady, Jackie, had something of a love-hate relationship with Billings. I have also studied the forensics of the assassination for 21 years. Because of him, I was never lonely. John F. Kennedy bi-sexual or gay? Lem Billings also buffered JFK from the toll that infidelity took on the Kennedy marriage. JFKs sex life, and his attachments to men, also needs to be better understood for what it reveals about his inner life, and for a moment in United States political history when sex itself was undergoing seismic changes. Elisa Lam's Cause of Death & Autopsy: Cecil Hotel Mystery - Heavy.com Co-executive Editor, Public Seminar and Professor of History, The New School for Social Research, Photo credit: Cecil Stoughton/Wikimedia Commons. 7 Gay Presidential Rumors You Won't Believe (But Maybe Should) "[38] Another said: "Members of the president's staff thought of him as a 'handy old piece of furniture. "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. "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. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to receive selections from new issues of Public Seminar. But the point of the picture is the grief any couple would feel at the loss of a much-wanted child. In photos and excerpts from David Pitts's book Jack & Lem, we remember President John F. Kennedy through the lens of his lifelong friendship with Lem Billings. 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. 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: 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 . [36] When the Kennedys spent the weekend at Glen Ora, their Virginia estate, Jacqueline Kennedy invited Billings to join them more often than the President did. And seated close to Kennedy is his shirtless, tanned and oiled best friend forever, his very gay chum, Kirk LeMoyne 'Lem' Billings. The year also brought a staggering . He believed Billings loved Kennedy. They were especially fanatical about football. 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. 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. She was expected to be constantly available for him, he was inconsiderate and unloving, and she was permitted to tell no one. The biographer Sally Bedell Smith, referred to Billings in one of her books as 'probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows.'. Why should a historian care about Kennedys sex life at all? (Page 276). [4], Some historians believe that Billings expressed his sexual interest in Kennedy in writing in 1934 and that Kennedy rebuffed his advances. I was pleased to note that things picked up after your arrival,' referring to Montgomery's battle with Rommel at El Alamein. JFK appeared to be in love with the idea of Billings being in love with him. JFK's Friendship with Lem Billings: His Best Friend Never Got Over 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. 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 . 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. Bobby Kennedy Jr. gave the eulogy. Lem Billings had a remarkable friendship with JFK that lasted from 1932, when the two met as classmates in prep school, until JFK's assassination in 1963. Could he have been the third leg of what was clearly an unconventional marriage? JFK may have had gay experiences with friend - IrishCentral.com 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. ", 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. [66], In 1987, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin described how Billings structured her interviews with him. [1] The Billings family were Episcopalians and Republicans.[2]. 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. Inside the relationship between JFK and Lem Billings Part One Looking Out of the Frame: Camelot's Gay - OutHistory (Page 80), Lem examines a damaged ambulance door following the Messerschmitt attack, Sirte, Libya, 1943. Jerry Oppenheimer is a New York Times bestselling author who has written two books about the Kennedys. When they arrived at the cemetery, it was already in place to be lowered. According to the book, a gift from Billings a whale's-tooth scrimshaw was buried with him. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings (April 15, 1916 - May 28, 1981) was a close friend of the Kennedy family, who had his own room at the White House during the Kennedy presidency. COVID No. 1 cause of death among Montana Native Americans Ben Bradlee, a Kennedy friend who worked at Newsweek during the Kennedy Administration, and no friend of Billings,[40] said "they were childhood friends and stayed loyal to each other forever." "[52] One historian wrote that after the 1963 assassination Billings was: "probably the saddest of the Kennedy 'widows'. Historian Lois Banner has also provided details about Marilyn Monroes affair with JFK, one of numerous women procured for the President by Peter Lawford, who himself staged sexual orgies in Los Angeles that the President attended. It would be the last Christmas in which the United States would be at peace for more than four years. Billings as a teenager was 6' 2", weighed 175 pounds, and was the strongest member of the Choate crew. Lem Billings - Works | Archive of Our Own Claire Potteris professor of history at The New School, and Executive Editor of Public Seminar. "[58] Though Gore Vidal thought Billings was "absolutely nobody," he also believed "it was a good idea that Jack had somebody he could trust like that around him." He sent one letter to Lem's mother addressed to the American Field Service PO Box in New York. May I come inside?" Language: English Words: 1,469 . In 1965, Mrs. Kennedy invited Billings to accompany her and her children to England for the unveiling of a memorial to Kennedy at Runnymede. She reportedly had a love-hate relationship with her husband's best friend. 'I borrowed the other half from an inheritance I was about to receive from my grandmother after I graduated from college,' remembered Lem. He was a beautiful baby," he ducked into a boiler room and wept. Published: 16:57 GMT, 9 June 2017 | Updated: 19:00 GMT, 9 June 2017. 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! 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. 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. John Fitzgerald Kennedy & Lem Billings: elisa_rolle - LiveJournal President John F. Kennedy has become infamous for his vivid, and some might say almost compulsive, heterosexual affairs. COVID-19 became the No. Authorities have identified the woman found dead Tuesday in a residence on Avenue B in Billings as Shanna Lynn Booth. 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. "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.". Definitions: Cause of death vs risk factors. It was Bobby Kennedy Jr. who gave the eulogy. Kennedy was allegedly on the receiving end of oral sex. 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. Lem never really left Jacks orbit after boarding school.
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