'He seemed a very pleasant fellow,' said Bontecou, a classmate of Bobby's. Billings had a romantic relationship with JFK's nephew, Bobby Kennedy Jr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And The Dark Side Of The Dream 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. John F. Kennedy Had a Thing for Scrimshaw - Boston Magazine Fanning, a self- described wild child at the time, recalled Bobby's visits to the pit, which he had witnessed, as 'grotesque. 'There was no gnashing of teeth and sobbing in the context of his leaving. 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. Young John F. Kennedy (35th U.S President) with his gay - reddit New York City, taking lunch from his job at Lennen & Newell. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. A different side of JFK: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings met atChoate Rosemary Hall and became lifelong friends. 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. 2023 Meadowrockalpacas. He was born to Otis and Anna Speer on July 14, 1928, in Glasgow, Montana. JFK's Queer White House - Public Seminar 7:44 PM. Of the Kennedys, only Bobby's uncle Ted had shown up at Millbrook to see how his nephew was doing. 'Rob' Bierregaard Jr., who later went on to teach ornithology at the University of North Carolina, recalled, 'Next to the school there was a cow pit where the local dairy farmers threw their dead cows, and it was full of rats. ", 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.". I can't even tell. But it also looks at her through this particular prism of another outsider, Lem Billings. The business was started in 1956 by Robert G. Michelotti and John F. Sawyers. Funeral Home in Elkhart IN | Billings Funeral Home Their foresight led to the development of a funeral home dedicated to providing the best quality service possible to families at their . 'We never saw Ethel on the campus again. KIRK LEMOYNE BILLINGS - Remember My Journey Jack and Lem explores the enduring friendship between John F. Kennedy and Kirk Lemoyne Billings (aka "Lem"). "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 . Wanting to be around family . Quirk alleged thatBilling and Kennedys relationship included oral sex with JFK always being on the receiving end. "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," says Bayard, who did a deep dive into the Kennedy archives and biographies while doing researching for the book. After Jack Kennedy's election to the presidency, Billings was a constant presence and overnight guest at the White House. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. In June 1961, just months after Kennedy began his presidential term, he and Jackie visited Buckingham Palace, where a black tie banquet was hosted in the President's honour. According to Jerry Oppenheimer, author of RFK Jr.: Robert F. Kennedy and the Dark Side of the Dream, Kennedy responded, please dont write to me on toilet paper anymore. ', Rose Kennedy, however, had a different, more positive view of Billings. . In the summer of 1934, future United States president John F Kennedy was in his junior year at the prestigious Choate School in Connecticut. 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. Extent: 82 digital pages. 'But Bobby was doing a little more than some of the rest of us - a little more and maybe harder stuff than the rest of us.'. As they became close, Billings confided that his relationship with Kennedy was, in fact, sexual, to a point. It just reeks of arrogance, but I did not experience Bobby as arrogant.'. 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. Billings remarked (at the end of the story) that had he married and settled down, he would not have been happier than he was as . Clarendon? But then I realize she's never seen Jack's car (or Jack himself, maybe) in the naked light of day. But the man married to Jackie Kennedy was quietly chided for his compulsive philandering. he's stoned." 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. to Frederic Tremaine Billings, a prominent physician and Romaine LeMoyne (direct He had his own room in the 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." Funeral homes; Help and advice. As one source told me, "Young Bobby replaced Jack in Lem's heart of hearts.". a commission in the U.S. He is survived by a brother, Dr. F. Tremayne Billings, and a sister, Lucretia Billings Fisher. But I'm stuck with the Kennedys emotionally, and I will be to the end of my life. ', 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. While Billings' missive is long gone, a startled Kennedy responded, "Please don't write to me on toilet paper anymore. Only a very liberal school [like Pomfret] that needed money would take him.'. 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. 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. See additional information. I'd known him then for a few months and knew he'd do anything. His behavior, particularly his drug use, had the administration concerned that if something happened to the young Kennedy, such as an overdose or worse, all hell would come down on the school and tarnish its reputation. "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. 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.' 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. 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. He's taken over."'. Kirk Billings, 65, Dies; Friend of the Kennedys, https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/29/obituaries/kirk-billings-65-dies-friend-of-the-kennedys.html. But Billings remained closeted publicly for his life. ", "We'd have to drive clear to New York for that. The book is set in 1981, in New York City, where Jackie has settled after becoming the Widow Onassis and joining the working world. Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you. 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. The first lady, Jackie, had something of a love-hate relationship with Billings. 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. ', 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. 'Bobby was Machiavellian. 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). While he didn't have a chemistry teacher like Walter White, aka 'Heisenberg' of TV's Breaking Bad, the Camelot scion was doing everything he could to get high on whatever drugs he could get his hands on. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he sometimes acted as escort for several of the Kennedy women . ', 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. ", One of Jack's five sisters, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, found it hard to describe her brother's relationship with Billings, once stating, "It was a complete liberation of the spirit" for Jack, and that her brother was a "complete liberated man when he was with Lem. Or see our headlights slicing through the trees? I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity.]. Lem Billings and John F Kennedy were practically inseparable in prep school. Lem Billings andBobby Kennedy Jr became close after JFK's death and allegedly took drugs together. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings (April 15, 1916 - May 28, 1981) was a close and long-time friend of President John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family. You didn't want to get too close to him.'. He may have been the Copyright 2022 by Louis Bayard. I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another.". Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. When JFK was assassinated, he turned his attention to his nephew Bobby Kennedy Jr. He was born in Pittsburgh and graduated from Princeton. 'We would get a telephone call from that funny old nurse, who sounded like an old-time nanny, and she would say, "It's President Kennedy's birthday and Bobby needs to go to Mass and observe that," and my husband would have to take him,' recalled his widow. And now that we've crossed into Virginia, the only thing left to figure out is where she might live. 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.. the two men was friendship. Peter Cole, who taught English, noted, 'We as faculty members all seemed to have this awareness of Bobby's behavior and were totally unable to do anything about it, We did catch him finally and he was going to get tossed.'. Brode had liberal views, didn't mind that Bobby smoked pot with Lem Billings in Bobby's room. Bobby was an edgy, edgy guy. She reportedly had a love-hate relationship with her husband's best friend. 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. Since she considered young Bobby the most difficult and troublesome of her seven sons and three daughters (with another child the daughter Rory -- due at any moment), she decided to hand him off to Lem Billings, and moreover, sent him far away to boarding school, in the rural Hudson Valley of New York State. As Lindsey Cole Miesmer, a member of the class of 1972, who later became one of the school's trustees, noted, 'There was no school with any structure that Bobby could go to because Bobby was in trouble emotionally. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings was a bumbling giant, the offspring of a prominent but cash-poor Protestant family. ', Another classmate, Brian Carroll, remembered 'this odd character' Billings, who was always on campus fawning over Bobby: '"Bobby, are you eating? Try again later. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. 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. Lem Speer - BILLINGS, Montana , Smith Downtown Funeral Chapel whom Lem was also close to, died, Lem became exceedingly depressed and that caused 'It was kept 'very hush-hush,' recalled the music teacher James Hejduk. He escorted Mrs. Stephen Smith, sister of the late President, to . In school JFK and Lem were close. "And he also played a very important role in the courtship between Jackie Bouvier and Jack Kennedy. Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want to remind everyone of that today. . A unique and lasting tribute for a . The teenagers worked together on their classs yearbook, and Billings became sexually attracted to the handsome young Kennedy. I shoot him a look, and he saysimagine the offhandednessthat we have an additional passenger. But was reportedly upset that her husband spent so much time with him, and that he often stayed overnight at the White House. A funny photo of Senator John McCain catching himself after he nearly left the stage in the wrong direction after shaking hands with Senator Barack Obama. It was Bobby Kennedy Jr. who gave the eulogy. A group home in Fort Myer, maybe. Lem Speer Obituary (1928 - 2021) | Billings, Montana - Echovita 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. See the article in its original context from. University until Kennedy withdrew for medical reasons. Luling TX Obituaries | O'Bannon Funeral Home Lem Billings '39's Life | Princeton Alumni Weekly Lem Billings | Military Wiki | Fandom When Jack Kennedy and Billings were at Choate and later, when they were seemingly joined at the hip at Princeton for a time before Kennedy transferred to Harvard at his father's behest, Billings always accompanied him home on vacations. David Pitts, author of 'Jack and Lem: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship'said Lem was a gay man and he had a 14-year-old, good-looking kid living in his house with him and there have been rumors because of that. The mother of the house, Joanne 'Joey' Brode became a virtual surrogate mother to Bobby who notes years later, 'Ethel didn't even call Bobby on his birthday. But as I began to research him, I realized he was also very good friends with Jackie," the novelist says. A telephone conversation between President Kennedy and Lem Billings. Two months after Bobby was expelled, he along with a cousin, Bobby Sargent Shriver III, son of the former U.S. It was pretty clear he had some intravenous drug use back then, and he was the only person we knew who did.'. 14:55 EDT 13 Oct 2015. Fredrik Logevall on JFK, with David Nasaw, October 6, 2020, 3. But I think he was using heroinstudents were saying, "Mr. Merjian, he passes out at night. The Kennedys were a liberal family and one that tolerated a lot of heterosexual promiscuity as well., In her memoir, Times To Remember, published eleven years after JFKs assassination in Dallas in 1963, matriarch Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy 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., Lem Billings and John F. Kennedy pictured at the Kennedy familys Palm Beach estate. 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. 11:10 EDT 13 Oct 2015 Jack and Lem on Apple Books The Cold War was still raging, and there was fear Russian agents might use the friendship against Kennedy. It's when we're crossing back over Chain Bridge that she rouses herself to ask: "Jack, what color is your car?". The Camelot that Kennedy Built teddyken95: Lem Billings. Kirk LeMoyne He had an older sister, Ruth (Speer) Steele, older brother, Eugene "Bud" Speer, and younger half-brother Lawrence "Larry" Payant. Intimate relationship between JFK and his gay friend Take a look inside Dublin's most stylish townhouse, Number 31. 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. Mr. Billings and Mr. Kennedy were roommates at Choate and then at Princeton before Mr. Kennedy transferred to Harvard. 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.". '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. Kirk Lemoyne Billings Memorial Page. Lem ', White House visitor: Billings often spent the night at the White House, which upset Jackie Kennedy. JFK's gay widow - Dallas Voice He headed the committee that oversaw the construction of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. ISBN: 0306816237 ISBN13: 9780306816239 Jack and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship by David Pitts See Customer Reviews Select Format Hardcover $22.29 - $25.49 Paperback $12.09 - $19.04 Select Condition Like New -- Very Good Unavailable Good $12.09 Acceptable Unavailable New $19.04 Her knees are drawn protectively to her chest, and there's something quite exposed about her. Tglich werden Tausende neue hochwertige Bilder hinzugefgt. A Princeton friend and former business partner confided to Pitts about Billings that after Jack's death: "He didn't want to live anymore," and other friends claimed that he never recovered from the loss. President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas 50 years ago, leaving behind a mourning nation and his gay best friend, Lem Billings. '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. It was he, not Ethel, who handled all of Bobby's expenses 'He would come over fairly frequently for dinner whenever he was in town,' she recalled. An intimate of Billings, writer Lawrence J. Quirk, claimed that Billings, whom he met in 1946 when both worked in Jack Kennedy's first congressional campaign, had confided to him that their relationship did, in fact, involve sex acts 'a friendship that included oral sex, with Jack always on the receiving end. Jack Johns. '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 Cold War was still raging, and there was fear Russian agents might use the friendship against Kennedy. It only got worse with the drugs. 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. 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. I understand he's not worth it.". JFK appeared to be in love with the idea of Billings being in love with him. "Yesterday was Jack's birthday. JFK's oldest and best friend was Kirk LeMoyne Billings, known as "Lem." The two became fast friends in prep school and, after graduation, they traveled to Europe together. Quirk had met Billings in the mid-Forties when both were volunteers in Jack Kennedy's first congressional campaign. They both took drugs. RELATED:Jeffrey Epstein's Relationship With Princess Diana Explored In New Book. Lem Chesmore is a 34-year-old Billings native who grew up on the sport of boxing, first competing in 1980 at the Boys and Girls Club located on South 28th Street. 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. According to biographer James Spada, When Kennedy tired of her, he passed her off to his brother in 1962. The funeral will be held in Pittsburgh. This page is created to honor his memory and is dedicated to his family and friends. Everything involving Bobby had to go through Billings. The Kennedy patriarch, Joe, a noted philanderer himself, was suspicious of Billings' sexual preference from the start of his son's close friendship with him. If you have recently lost a family member or friend, we hope that you will accept our condolences. Share your favorite stories with other history buffs in the IrishCentral History Facebook group. The Man Who Loved JFK - The Gay & Lesbian Review Cherrydale? 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. Lem Billings (right) was Kennedy's roommate at Choate and Princeton and an usher at his wedding, Spending most weekends at the White House during JFK's presidency, he became known as the "first. Did the 35th US President John F Kenned have a secret gay relationship with his childhood friend Lem Billings? By easy degrees, she turns around and bestows on me a fuller version of that first smile. The young JFK, messing around with Lem Billings during their Choate years. Somebody who was also not of the Kennedys, but very much wanted to be one of them. Get out of my life.'. He noted that everywhere Jack went, Billings was sure to follow, like a puppy dog. And Bobby was sort of always unkempt.'. 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.
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