"Its the story of a really close friendship 7:44 PM. But, the Skakels had previously been homophobic to Billings. A wider smile than I would have guessed possible. "But the bond between Billings and Kennedy became so strong that Billings stayed back The Cold War was still raging, and there was fear Russian agents might use the friendship against Kennedy. Ethel's alcoholic, philandering brother, George Skakel Jr., actually booted Billings in the a** at the church, knocking him into the aisle. Lem Billings and John F. Kennedy met as teenagers at their Connecticut prep school and remained lifelong friends. Sign up to IrishCentral's newsletter to stay up-to-date with everything Irish! Lem was John F Kennedy's best friend. 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. Kirk LeMoyne Billings was Jack's very best friend from their time at Choate prep school in 1933 to that fateful day in Dallas 1963. The eyes even wider. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. In school JFK and Lem were close. David Marciano - Steve Billings (2008, recurring 2005-2007) Benito Martinez - David Aceveda (2002-2008) . What if Jacqueline Bouvier had chosen differently? She told him, 'I don't really care if you have a girl sleep here, but I want it to be the same person all the time because I want my kids to grow to understating that love is good with one person.'. Of the Kennedys, only Bobby's uncle Ted had shown up at Millbrook to see how his nephew was doing. guest every weekend of my married life." A group home in Fort Myer, maybe. Billings had once told Bobby that when. 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. 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. I'd known him then for a few months and knew he'd do anything. Billings had once told Bobby that when. He'd say, 'When you're shooting speed it's such a good rush. 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." 'Sometimes I answered the phone and I would hear her wispy voice, and then I would get my husband to talk to her.'. Advocate Contributors November 22 2013 4:00 AM EST In photos. ', By Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want to remind everyone of that today. This was at the end of their final presidential debate at Hofstra University in New York in October, 2008. 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. Claudette informed Vic that she was told that Lem's lack of a department funeral and motorcade would prevent news headlines about Lem's "dirty dealings". The teenagers worked together on their classs yearbook, and Billings became sexually attracted to the handsome young Kennedy. I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another.'. President Jimmy Carter broke royal protocol by kissing the Queen Mother on the lips during his visit in 1977. Quirk had met Billings in the mid-Forties when both were volunteers in Jack Kennedy's first congressional campaign. '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. 'We had a couple of calls from Jackie - "How's my nephew doing?" 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. Mr. Billings and Mr. Kennedy. Were I to search his facehis souldown to the most granular level, I would find no clue, for there is perhaps none to find. 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. Naval Reserve and served in the South Pacific eventually ', 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. Biographer Sally Bedell Smith referred to Billings as probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows., Following the assassination of RFK in 1968, Billings transferred his romantic feeling to Kennedys nephew, Bobby Kennedy Jr, to whom Billings would become a fawning surrogate father and fellow drug user.. Bobby had believed Billings' every word. 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 service at a later time. Their close relationship also caused his advisors to fear blackmail and political repercussions from Russian agents. In 1964, Billings was named to head a ten-person committee to select a memorial to Kennedy to be placed in the Kennedy Center. Standing next to Jack, or lying close beside him in a lawn chaise at the Kennedy oceanfront estate in Palm Beach, as one old photograph showed, Billings appeared to dwarf his chum. Hidden away high up on a bookshelf was a small bronze bust of his father. Lem Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings was a bumbling giant, the offspring of a prominent but cash-poor Protestant family. Billings Funeral Home. 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. (Video) Caroline Kennedy on JFK's secret recordings, (Video) JFK's Women: Scandals Revealed | CBC, (Video) July 20, 1962 - President John F. Kennedy arriving home for weekend, (Video) President Kennedy's family reflects on his 100th birthday, 2. 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. Irelands most popular baby names of 2022 - by county! Or see our headlights slicing through the trees? After Kennedy was elected president, Billings was a constant presence at the White House, and advisers were concerned about possible political repercussions. 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. "The result is this book, which looks at Jackie before she was Jackie the Jackie that we all think we know. 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.' he's stoned." Jack Johns. Trio arrested during crackdown fall foul of national security law. 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. Cherrydale? He was born to Otis and Anna Speer on July 14, 1928, in Glasgow, Montana. He attended one of the parents' weekends, but was never seen on campus again. He was 65 years old. Supposedly Billings had written a love note on a piece of toilet paper while the two were still in school. Beyond the senator, young Bobby's aunt Jackie had inquired about his welfare but never visited.'. '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. 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. When Bobby Kennedy, ', Drugs had become part of the scene at Millbrook, and Bobby would become a major player. By now, my glasses are fairly crusted over with pollen, so I'm making windshield wipers of my index fingers as I ask what it is that Miss Bouvier does with her days. The book is set in 1981, in New York City, where Jackie has settled after becoming the Widow Onassis and joining the working world. Kirk LeMoyne Lem Billings (April 15, 1916 May 28, 1981) was a close friend of President John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family. ', Hejduk also immediately perceived that the relationship between Bobby and Billings 'was probably one of those unrequited-love kind of things.'. Bobby was an edgy, edgy guy. Later Years. 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. 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. ', 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. In his will he left his Manhattan home to Bobby. Jackie Kennedy, who liked Billings for Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. "They make fun of my voice. "People think I'm a joke," he once acknowledged. In a 2007 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. It was Bobby Kennedy Jr. who gave the eulogy. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: RFK Jr. and the Dark Side of the Dream. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" " Bayard says of Billings. '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.'. If you have recently lost a family member or friend, we hope that you will accept our condolences. . 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. by the end of his own lifetime he would have been described as gay. But we speed past all those destinations before steering up Old Dominion Drive. Young Jfk. Lem Billings, from a distinguished old American Protestant family, was taller, bigger, stronger, with a high-pitched voice and a loud laugh. He was also a trustee of the Kennedy Library at Harvard. 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.. I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another. Because it was the boys' first offense, they were placed on probation. 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. As one source told me, 'Young Bobby replaced Jack in Lem's heart of hearts.'. He'd be expelled from Millbrook and later be ordered to leave the second school, Pomfret, in rural Connecticut, for using drugs and displaying bad, often bizarre behavior. 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. Ambassador to France under JFK, were hauled into juvenile court in the town of Barnstable on Cape Cod on charges of marijuana possession. Billings said. While the 35th president has been legendarily known as a womanizer who frequently cheated on his wife, Oppenheimer alleges that JFK's three-decades-long relationship with his former prep school. I was told by Billings, "Nothing ever goes directly to Ethel." Bobby, do you have clothes?" 2023byTango Publishing Corporation All Rights Reserved. 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. JFK's Best Friend Lem: Transcript. She has dabbed herself with Chateau Krigler 12 (I consider telling her it's my mother's favorite), and there is the complicating counter-aroma of Pall Malls, and somewhere at the back, simple bovine perspiration. And seated close to Kennedy is his shirtless, tanned and oiled best friend forever, his very gay chum, Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings. Yesterday was Jack's birthday. Ethel virtually abandoned 14-year-old Bobby after RFK's assassination in 1968, suddenly and inexplicably turning over his care, feeding and education to Lem Billings. He's just like Jack!' Irked, Joe Kennedy would sneeringly ask his wife, Rose, 'Do we have to have that queer around all summer? 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. 228. Lem even wrote John a love note on toilet paper . Billings reportedly told Kennedy of his romantic intentions in prep school (JFK pictured chatting with Marilyn Monroe and Robert F Kennedy). "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. 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 . Lem Billings passed away from a heart attack at 65 in 1981. Lem Billings was the ultimate "wing man." Billings was quietly gay, at a time when such things were not admitted to, particularly for those people who wanted to stay in high society. Reprinted by permission. 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. A unique and lasting tribute for a . They both took drugs. On June 30, 1937 John F. "Jack" Kennedy embarked on a two-and-a-half-month tour of Europe with his friend Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings aboard the S.S. Washington. Because Jack had no intention of ever being a faithful husband. 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. I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another.. 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. He's taken over."'. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he sometimes acted as escort for several of the Kennedy women . He was kind of sinister. LeMoyne Billings and Ethel Kennedy attend Liza Minnelli Concert on May 23, 1970 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. A planetarium-like darkness, with the two of them swimming like moons. In 1942, Lem joined the Ambulance Corps, an organization that John F. Kennedy with Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. President John F. Kennedy may have had an intimate relationship with a gay friend from his prep school days, claims bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer, who has written two books about the Kennedys. Michelotti-Sawyers Mortuary and Crematory is a locally and independently owned and operated full service funeral home and crematory. ', As Quirk further observed, 'Jack was in love with Lem being in love with him and considered him the ideal follower-adorer.'. 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. 'But we never saw Ethel. Lem was the second person Jack's sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, called after reaching her sister, Pat Lawford. While on the road, the only person he touched base with was Lem Billings. But the man married to Jackie Kennedy was quietly chided for his compulsive philandering. 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. 'And there he was hunting rats out of that pile of dead sheep and cow carcasses. While Lem Billings was an actual Kennedy intimate, narrator Lem is reminiscent of The Great Gatsby's Nick Carraway, and his fictional reminiscences structure the novel around the triangular friendship he shares with Jack and Jackie in the years leading up to their wedding in the early 1950s. Wanting to be around family . 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. I'm not that kind of boy.. Their foresight led to the development of a funeral home dedicated to providing the best quality service possible to families at their . 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. Was it best that he stay and risk the possibility of injuring himself seriously or completely, or was it best for him, as nasty as it was, to ask a Kennedy to leave.'. Clarendon? If we had made that very different choice, we would've gone down a completely different road. Jack and Lem explores the enduring friendship between John F. Kennedy and Kirk Lemoyne Billings (aka "Lem"). of 1 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. 'Bobby wasn't just a pothead. 'I thought, that's the kind of s**t heavy drug users pull. finances. ", 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. And it's a kind of interesting love triangle between these three fascinating people.". By Sydney Taylor Written on Nov 06, 2021. 'He played with Bobby, if you will, more than a father probably would, was just devoted to him, and there was reallyl honest affection between them.'. He accepted it.' Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. Terrien had been RFK's roommate at Harvard and later at the University of Virginia Law School, and he was particularly upset about what he saw clearly as Billings's growing infatuation with young Bobby. You can't even talk to him. Lem's father died in 1933 placing additional strain on the family's Even when Bobby was invited to weekend lunches at the Bontecou estate, it was Billings who accompanied him. 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. Jackie was reportedly upset that her husband spent so much time with Billings and that he often spent the night at the White House. 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. He refers to virtually all his girls that way. ', In fact, in private, she ranted, 'You've dragged your family's name through the mud.'. Heide Knop. "It's very clear to me, too, from the research, that she was absolutely besotted with Jack Kennedy," he explains. Where sits a girl. 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. had no problem with his eye sight and saw action in North Africa. Quirk had met Billings in the mid-Forties when both were volunteers in Jack Kennedy's first congressional campaign. Billings enthused to RFK and Ethel in his high-pitched voice, which RFK made fun of behind his back. "And she knew, at some level, that she was marrying another version of her father. "Oh, yes?" 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. ', Jacqueline Kennedy was reportedly unhappuabout her husband and Billings' three decade long relationship. Getty Images Billings, for his part, never married and eventually became a marketing executive and worked on the John F. Kennedy Center for the. In the spring of 1972, with graduation approaching, Bobby took the SAT college board exam, and filled out his application for college. He noted that everywhere Jack went, Billings was sure to follow, like a puppy dog. . Billings made his desire known while the two were still at school by writing Kennedy a love note on a piece of toilet paper. 'But the one thing that struck me even at that tender age was that I felt Lem was just obsessed with Bobby the way he watched over him, the way he was hugely protective of him. Lem married Rolla Jean Auer on September 17, 1950. 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. 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. And now that we've crossed into Virginia, the only thing left to figure out is where she might live. I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity.]". He had an older sister, Ruth (Speer) Steele, older brother, Eugene "Bud" Speer, and younger half-brother Lawrence "Larry" Payant. If you need a funeral home you can trust, call today. 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 . Please consult your doctor before taking any action. I don't know whether she wrote to Bobby, but she certainly didn't telephone or visit him. to the arrival of the Mayflower and were ardent abolitionists who championed the He had his own room in the While the 35th president has been legendarily known as a womanizer who frequently cheated on his wife, Oppenheimer alleges that JFKs three-decades-long relationship with his former prep school friend Lem Billings may have been a sexual one.
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