'Yesterday was Jack's birthday. Jack's best friend was Lem and he would want me to remind everyone of that today." Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. They always remembered him as the nicest German they ever met." [35] In 1962 he escorted two of the President's sisters, Eunice Shriver and Jean Kennedy Smith, around Europe for more than two weeks. Lem Billings also buffered JFK from the toll that infidelity took on the Kennedy marriage. Kennedy later graduated from Harvard, but the pair wrote letters back and forth, spent weekends together in New York and traveled to Germany in the summer of 1937. "And everything ready for a big, big party.". At one point, he is said to have remarked: "After I go, there'll be no more Kennedys.". Even worse, many such slurs aren't from men but 'I couldn't do it without you': Victoria Beckham poses with her whole family after her PFW show - as she Brooklyn Beckham puts on a loved-up display with wife Nicola Peltz as they head back to hotel after Cruz Beckham supports his mother Victoria as he carrying his very own VB handbag on the way to her show Like father, like daughter! [47], Billings spent less time with the President in the fall of 1963. [28] One presidential aide later said that "some people saw him so much they thought he was the Secret Service. Gore Vidal, the writer who claimed he viewed homosexuality as normal as heterosexuality, disparaged the JFK-Billings relationship during the Kennedy administration. The young Kennedys took the casket and carried it around the gravesite before returning it to the burial plot. It would go on to become one of his most prized possessions." 'People think I'm a joke,' he once acknowledged. The first time Kirk Lemoyne 'Lem' Billings was . In the fictionalAmerican Adulterer (2009), novelist Jed Mercurio s imagines a Kennedy who believes that ejaculating several times a day was crucial to maintaining good health and mental alertness, a form of self-care and that controlled his attacks of Addisons Disease by preventing seminal fluid from backing up into his body. Billings, a 16-year-old third-year student, and Kennedy, a 15-year-old second-year student, met at Choate, an elite preparatory school, in the fall of 1933. 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. 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 . Mid-1930s. 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. She was expected to be constantly available for him, he was inconsiderate and unloving, and she was permitted to tell no one. 64, No. Article. [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. Lem Billings died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack on May 28, 1981, at the age of 65. Although Alford refused, she did not always have the self-confidence to say no: earlier, she had fellated a staff member in Jacks presence. JAMIE RICHARDSON: John F. Kennedy had no shortage of people who considered themselves friends of the 35th president. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. Major Character Death; John F Kennedy/ Lem Billings; John F. Kennedy; Lem Billings; Friends to Lovers; Hurt/Comfort; Summary. One of their friends thought "that Jackie was trying to close Lem out. He didn't want to share his friendship with Jack. And he also played a very important role in the courtship between Jackie Bouvier and Jack Kennedy," Bayard told PEOPLE in an earlier interview about his book, which will be published by Algonquin Books in June. But I'm stuck with the Kennedys emotionally, and I will be to the end of my life. The 51-year-old daughter of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died Sept. 16 while working out at her Washington, D.C., gym. [17] In 1956 he was an usher at the wedding of Kennedy's sister Jean to Stephen Edward Smith. Lem Chesmore is a 34-year-old Billings native who grew up on the sport. ", Still, he was well aware of his proximity to history. It remains the worst such failure in the history of advertising agencies. 'What the hell have you been doing? While web sleuths and conspiracy theorists were looking for the person who killed her . His father was a prominent physician and a graduate of the U.S. I have also studied the forensics of the assassination for 21 years. educated at. Kennedy and Billings remained intimate in part by managing Jacks sex life, his career, and his family, together. Billings, Lem (Kirk LeMoyne), 1916-1981. He was also plagued by ill health. He remained in the closet until his death in 1981 at the age of 65, according to Pitts. "At Choate, boys who were interested in sexual involvement with other boys were courteous and discreet, writing notes on toilet paper so they could be easily swallowed or flushed," David Pitts writes in his 2007 book Jack and Lem: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship. 'Haven't heard a word from you,' Jack wrote. During the night of May 28, 1981-almost two decades after JFK's untimely death - 65-year-old Lem Billings died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack. In the epidemiological framework of the Global Burden of Disease study each death has one specific cause. Kennedy. Pictures of the first family are typical of Cold War domestic norms: widely distributed before and after his death, these photographs show him as a conventional, heterosexual husband and a devoted father. Kennedy was allegedly on the receiving end of oral sex. and yet you still think JFK was alive in December 1963! (Page 4), "When Jack wasn't trying to get Lem to sing on family occasions, he was cajoling him into playing sports -- usually touch football, a game Lem came to loathe. I have been studying human sexuality for 25 years and am a Stanford grad and track athlete. Bobby Kennedy Jr. gave the eulogy. [13] He later had several jobs, including selling Coca-Cola dispensers to drugstores and working at a General Shoe store. Sexual Abuse at Choate Went On for Decades. In 1958, her cousin Gore Vidal brought playwright Tennessee Williams to the Kennedy home in Palm Beach, FL. "Because of him," Billings once said. He may have been the reason I never married.. Jacqueline Bouvier would have the same problem, using every possible excuse to avoid the game, after she and Jack were married in 1953." Smith, 433-4; see also: Smith, 113: "The only counterbalance to the [Kennedy] family's philistinism had been Lem Billings, whose passion for art and antiques had begun with his Princeton theses on Tintoretto, a precociously sophisticated study. "I was never lonely.". [59], He escorted Jean Kennedy Smith, sister of the President, to a gala ballet performance in 1966[61] and Ethel Kennedy, the president's sister-in-law, to the 1971 opening of the Kennedy Center. Jerry Oppenheimer is a New York Times bestselling author who has written two books about the Kennedys. "[21] In September 1961, he accepted an appointment to the board of trustees of the planned National Cultural Center, which later became the Kennedy Center. In a third, the President is walking on the beach with the late Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, as they grieved the death of their premature son Patrick. [4], Some historians believe that Billings expressed his sexual interest in Kennedy in writing in 1934 and that Kennedy rebuffed his advances. Although Jack and Bobby were of different temperaments -- Jack, detached and cerebral, Bobby, intense and emotional -- Lem saw so much of Jack in Bobby. William Lemp III died an untimely death of a heart attack at the age of 42. A telephone conversation between President Kennedy and Lem Billings. 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. Click to browse the Lem Billings Personal Papers KLBPP-001-003-p0015. Pitts' 2007 book helped spur renewed interest in the friendship between President Kennedy and Billings. "[41] At the same time, he admitted that no one ever expressed the idea aloud during Kennedy's White House years. [28] He sat with the President's family at the Kennedy inauguration and walked not far behind his widow at the Kennedy funeral. [48] Billings saw the President for the last time when they dined at the White House with Greta Garbo on November 13, 1963, nine days before the President's assassination in Dallas. Billings kept the letters JFK wrote to him between 1934 and 1939, and he donated the entire collection to the Library in the 1970s. 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. In 1958, when Kennedy decided to launch a campaign for the presidency from his Massachusetts Senate seat, the United States had not yet experienced a sexual revolution that would challenge and change many people. John F. Kennedy bi-sexual or gay? However, an earlier book by Hollywood writer Lawrence Quirk alleges that Billings was not rebuffed. Ethel's alcoholic, philandering brother, George Skakel Jr., actually booted Billings in the a** at the church, knocking him into the aisle. It impressed . JFK appeared to be in love with the idea of Billings being in love with him. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. I am gay and this relationship was more than relieving sexual tension! 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. Billings served with Sargent Shriver as a trustee for the Kennedy family trusts. One famous shot shows the toddler John, Jr., a man who would also die tragically young, playing peek-a-boo under the desk. [24], Billings visited the White House for most weekends during the Kennedy Administration. Yesterday was Jack's birthday. 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. The biographer Sally Bedell Smith, referred to Billings in one of her books as 'probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows.'. The first lady, Jackie, had something of a love-hate relationship with Billings. He had interests of his own that Jack didn't necessarily share. [9] He saw action in North Africa in 194243. A queer perspective on JFK is not readily visible in official histories that feature iconic images and stories about one of the first administrations to offer the public ongoing access to the White Houses backstage. Needless to say, JFK may have had, in a sense, two widows. "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 . Have a nice one! In less than a year, the country would be at war." ', Jacqueline Kennedy was reportedly unhappuabout her husband and Billings' three decade long relationship. ", 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. Lem was a virtual fixture in the Kennedy family who even had his own room at the White House. But the man married to Jackie Kennedy was quietly chided for his compulsive philandering. The parents who fear their 11-year-olds will be scarred for life by the graphic sex education lessons that Two Insulate Britain protesters are jailed for contempt of court after they defied a judge's orders not to 'Derek fights on, it makes me fall in love with him all over again:' Kate Garraway reveals there are days French authorities fear 'narco-tourists' could flock to Normandy beaches after 'more than two tonnes of Hopes for cervical cancer vaccine after trials in mice showed it reduced tumours 80 per cent of the time. President John F. Kennedy has become infamous for his vivid, and some might say almost compulsive, heterosexual affairs. "'Of course, there was always Cape Cod in Massachusetts when the president wanted to be near the water,' Lem remarked. [51] Red Fay, a friend of the President from his World War II service, said of Billings: "I didn't see anything overtly gay about him; I think he was neutral. The importance of other causes of death such as communicable diseases, maternal, neonatal and nutritional causes, and noncommunicable diseases like cancer and heart disease varied most between different countries. [37], Billings' role as "first friend" was assessed by many observers at the time and since. He sent one letter to Lem's mother addressed to the American Field Service PO Box in New York. 228. Both Jack and Lem were crazy about dogs and soon fell totally in love with little Dunker. July 24, 2015. As they became close, Billings confided that his relationship with Kennedy was, in fact, sexual, to a point. Later Years. Between 1933 and 1935, The bond between Jack and Lem grew so tight, journalist David Pitts wrote in Jack and Lem (2008), that they really had no need for friendships with other boys.. Prince Andrew has 'offered to manage prestigious Royal estates including Balmoral but King Charles has told PLATELL'S PEOPLE: Yes, Madonna toyboys are fun but not if you value your dignity. According to Pitts, Billings never recovered from the death of his friend, suffering from a "deep depression" in the weeks and months after President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. The book "Jack and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship," details the extraordinary relationship between two unlikely friends. 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. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to receive selections from new issues of, what historian David K. Johnson calls the lavender scare, According to author Christopher Bram (2012), her fictional account of the love affair between Eleanor Roosevelt. 'I borrowed the other half from an inheritance I was about to receive from my grandmother after I graduated from college,' remembered Lem. [63], Billings served for many years along with Sargent Shriver as a trustee for the Kennedy family trusts,[65] working from an office in the Pan Am Building. But above all, Bobby was very important to Lem personally. I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity.]. The comments below have been moderated in advance. Billings repeated his senior year so that he and Kennedy could graduate from Choate together in 1935. 'It was very hard for him, but he wanted to do it and he stuck with it,' Lucretia added. 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. I was pleased to note that things picked up after your arrival,' referring to Montgomery's battle with Rommel at El Alamein. It is a historic rural cemetery. Billings had once told Bobby that. Harvard University. 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. In recent years, there has also been talk of a movie adaptation. The murder of Curtis Lemansky marked the beginning of the end for the Strike Team. Copyright 20142023 The Editorial Board of Public Seminar, All Rights Reserved. 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. When a butler commented on the fact that Billings was leaving his belongings in one of the third-floor guest rooms, the First Lady replied: "He's been my house guest since I was married.