In the summer of 1934, future United States president John F Kennedy was in his junior year at the prestigious Choate School in Connecticut. 16. The elder Kennedys at some point desired that the younger Kennedys: ', In fact, in private, she ranted, 'You've dragged your family's name through the mud.'. Doesn't she hear the car's tires on the gravel? 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. lifelong close friend of President John F. Kennedy. Lem Billings and John F. Kennedy met as teenagers at their Connecticut prep school and remained lifelong friends. I'm sure there were moments where they drew aside together and talked about this problem called Jack Kennedy because he was a problem for a young woman that was looking for love and attachment.". 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. * Originally published in June 2017, updated in 2022. Lem Billings was called and, according to Donn Wright, who became the new headmaster, 'he didn't try to change anybody's minds. "People think I'm a joke," he once acknowledged. 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. 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 immediately pegged Billings as gay, noting his 'high, screechy laugh,' and 'high nasal whine of a voice.' All in all, there's a certain relief in being able to retreat into the Crestline's back seat. Copyright 2022 by Louis Bayard. Jerry Oppenheimer is a New York Times bestselling author who has written two books about the Kennedys. His latest book, The Kardashians: An American Drama, will be published in September. 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'd say, 'When you're shooting speed it's such a good rush. descendant of John LeMoyne, a French physician and Dr. Francis LeMoyne, an abolitionist For all I know, she's speculating about the Washington Senators' pennant chances. 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.'. Jackie, I imagine, is now asking the name of Bobby's daughter or wondering if Eunice will be there and which one is Pat? mutual distaste for their school and its headmaster, Seymour St. John. I thought, anything goes with this guy. His latest book, The Kardashians: An American Drama, will be published in September. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings was a bumbling giant, the offspring of a prominent but cash-poor Protestant family. Lem Billings (left) became a surrogate father to Bobby Kennedy Jr. (right). Lem Billings passed away from a heart attack at 65 in 1981. But I'm stuck with the Kennedys emotionally, and I will be to the end of my life.". After Jack Kennedy's election to the presidency, Billings was a constant presence and overnight guest at the White House. The president is seen teeing off, among his guests joining him being Press Secretary Pierre Salinger, lifelong friends Lem Billings and Charles Spalding, and British Ambassador Sir David Ormsby-Gore. John F. Kennedy and Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings met in 1933 as sophomores at Choate Rosemary Hall, a Connecticut prep school where they worked on their class yearbook together. By the middle of Bobby's second year at Millbrook, around January 1970, he was placed on a secret short list of students considered too difficult to remain enrolled. had no problem with his eye sight and saw action in North Africa. 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. RFK's assassination had naturally devastated his 40-year-old wife, Ethel, who was pregnant with her eleventh child. according to David Pitts' 2007 biography Jack and Lem. 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. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings, was a prep school roommate and then lifelong close friend of President John F. Kennedy. 'Sometimes I answered the phone and I would hear her wispy voice, and then I would get my husband to talk to her.'. '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.'. The first lady, Jackie, had something of a love-hate relationship with Billings. education of free black Americans after the Confederate States of America was Bobby, who would become one of the nation's leading - and often controversial - environmental activists and lawyers, was a member of the falconry group at Millbrook, but his behavior was considered bizarre. What happened when Jackie Kennedy and Queen Elizabeth II met? 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. 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? Sydney Taylor is a writer who focuses on News and Entertainment topics. 'I had written a report on Bobby, and Billings answered it and didn't agree with me, and that's when I thought, "Uh-oh, he's in charge here. It was Bobby Kennedy Jr. who gave the eulogy. Then, when Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, his wife Ethel Skakel had Billings act as the surrogate father to her son Bobby Jr. Bayard explores the beginnings of the romance between the future Mrs. Kennedy, then the inquiring photographer for the Washington Times-Herald, and young Congressman John F. Kennedy, with Jack's best friend, Lem Billings, serving as a "go-between" for the lovers in 1950s Washington, D.C. "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. While the photo of Kennedy cozying up to Monroe is the best known of him with one of his purported lovers, other far less public snapshots show the flip side of Kennedy's intimate relationships. and Jack first met at Choate Rosemary Hall in 1933 when Lem was 17 and Jack was He once called Billings the 'chief f****t at Camelot.' Sam Gillette is a books Writer/Reporter for People.com and People Magazine. He attended one of the parents' weekends, but was never seen on campus again. "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. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. I mutter something on the order of yes, I must be, and she smiles. Ancestors. Jack was in love with Lem being in love with him and considered him the ideal follower adorer.. 'I've just met the smartest little boy! Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want to remind everyone of that today. In 1942, Lem joined the Ambulance Corps, an organization that There is nothing, in short, about a "Miss Bouvier" to separate her from her predecessors. 'He was a man that seemed to obviously be of independent means and have a lot of time on his hands, like a supporting cast kind of person, one those people who traded on the Kennedy name and reputation. 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. Genealogy profile for Lem Billings Kirk LeMoyne Billings (1916 - 1981) - Genealogy Genealogy for Kirk LeMoyne Billings (1916 - 1981) family tree on Geni, with over 230 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. "Because of him," Lem Billings once said of President Kennedy, "I was never lonely" As they became close, Billings confided that his relationship with Kennedy was, in fact, sexual, to a point. Bobby was an edgy, edgy guy. After it was all over, Bobby left home with $600, and traveled to California, sometimes riding the rails, and ended up in Berkeley where he bought drugs with money he panhandled. LeMoyne Billings and Ethel Kennedy attend Liza Minnelli Concert on May 23, 1970 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Enter your email below to have our funeral service notifications delivered to you. 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. In 1941, Jack and Lem both tried out for the military but were both declined, 7:44 PM. "The result is this book, which looks at Jackie before she was Jackie the Jackie that we all think we know. Lem P Speer <p>Lem P. Speer, 93, died peacefully in his home on November 20, 2021. , In office January 20, 1961 November 22, 1963. But it was the only boarding school that Lem Billings could find that would admit him. It's the weekend before St. Patrick's Day, 1952, and there's still a late-winter nip in the Virginia air, but Jack always keeps the top down because, by age thirty-four, he knows how dashing his hair looks in high wind. of adding a fruit flavor to disguise the sodium citrate taste. Miss Bouvier is a destination. Billings had even begun calling Bobby 'Jack' by mistake, and Billings had instructed one of Bobby's close cousins, Christopher Kennedy Lawford, also a drug abuser at the time, to be to Bobby what RFK had been to JFK. Billings and. 'Ethel never had any contact about her son. 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 Kennedys were a liberal family and one that tolerated a lot of heterosexual promiscuity as well. The Brodes didn't mind that Billings was gay and had such a close relationship with Bobby. As Fanning recalled years later, 'The room was filthy and Bobby let the bird, which perched on the bust of his father, s**t all over the place, including all down that bust of his dead father. 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. 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. Lem also worked for JFK in the West Virginia and Wisconsin primaries A wider smile than I would have guessed possible. 'We couched it in terms of what was best for Bobby. He accepted it.' Although Mr. Billings never served the President in an official capacity, he was a frequent guest at the White House. 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. From 1946 to 1948, Lem attended Harvard Business School. Ambassador to France under JFK, were hauled into juvenile court in the town of Barnstable on Cape Cod on charges of marijuana possession. They shared an insatiable intellectual curiosity, a robust sense of humor, and a disdain for petty rules. In truth, the Kennedys did have criticisms of Queen Elizabeth following their meeting. According to biographer James Spada, When Kennedy tired of her, he passed her off to his brother in 1962. whom Lem was also close to, died, Lem became exceedingly depressed and that caused Lem Billings andBobby Kennedy Jr became close after JFK's death and allegedly took drugs together. RELATED:Jeffrey Epstein's Relationship With Princess Diana Explored In New Book. The president was famously believed to have affairs during their marriage. 121 likes. , Did President Kennedy meet the Queen of England? "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. In Victorian And I think Billings had a way of editing things - painting the picture of Bobby's performance smoother than it really was. They both kept diaries documenting, in words and pictures, their adventures, mishaps, and observations along the way. Kirk LeMoyne Billings and John F. Kennedy. The biographer Sally Bedell Smith, referred to Billings in one of her books as 'probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows.'. "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. Gore Vidal, the writer who claimed he viewed homosexuality as normal as heterosexuality, disparaged the JFK-Billings relationship during the Kennedy administration. Their lifelong relationship caused some of the presidents advisers to fear Russian agents may use the information as blackmail. Billings had once told Bobby that when. Click to browse the Lem Billings Personal Papers KLBPP-001-003-p0015. 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. Senator Edward M. Kennedy will speak at a memorial service tomorrow morning at 10 A.M. at the Church of the Heavenly Rest, 90th Street and Fifth Avenue. Billings was devastated after the JFK assassination. 'And there he was hunting rats out of that pile of dead sheep and cow carcasses. Her moods could swing drastically. 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. ', Another classmate, Brian Carroll, remembered 'this odd character' Billings, who was always on campus fawning over Bobby: '"Bobby, are you eating? 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. Ethel Kennedy issued the requisite concerned parent statement, calling Bobby a 'fine boy, and we have always been proud of him. However, according to Lawrence J. Quirk, author of The Kennedys In Hollywood JFKs reaction to Billings quickly changed. If you need a funeral home you can trust, call today. Photo / Getty Images. From Algonquin Books. 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. He truly loved the Kennedy's and as Jack's best friend. 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?'. 2023 Meadowrockalpacas. He noted that everywhere Jack went, Billings was sure to follow, like a puppy dog. ", 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.". Although Joe Kennedy, the family patriarch, was reportedly suspicious of Billings close relationship with his son, the Kennedy family welcomed Billings into their exclusive family circle. dachshund they named Dunker but had to give him up because of Jack's allergies. ', By From all accounts, they became fast friends, drawn to each other by their a commission in the U.S. Meadowrockalpacas is a website that writes about many topics of interest to you, a blog that shares knowledge and insights useful to everyone in many fields. Monroe and JFK were first introduced in 1954 by Peter Lawford, JFK's brother-in-law. "And who should that be?". 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. 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. He was 65 years old. ', 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.