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Lem Billings andBobby Kennedy Jr became close after JFK's death and allegedly took drugs together. 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. Once, Alford remembered, Kennedy suggested that she would be doing him a favor if she agreed to help his younger brother, Ted, a newly elected Senator, with his own tensions, while the President watched from across the pool. 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. The bond between Billings and John F. Kennedy continues to be of interest to many, with a new wave of attention cresting on social media apps like TikTok, where users have pored back over candid photos of the young men together. "He did not want to hear one negative syllable, and there were a lot of negatives going along.". "Raffish and yet prissy," they write of Billings "a sort of court chronicler reporting on the old days which even Bobby and Ethel didn't recall and functioning as the all-purpose cheerleader, godfather, and pallbearer who could always be counted on. 64, No. Their very intimate relationship would last from those school days to Billings even having a room in the Kennedy White House distressing for the first lady to the day of Kennedy's assassination. 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. 'Haven't heard a word from you,' Jack wrote. President John F. Kennedy has become infamous for his vivid, and some might say almost compulsive, heterosexual affairs. He had clearly been adopted into the larger Kennedy clan, and Jackie drew him into her family circle as well. 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. "The agency, which was the 13th largest in the United States in 1971, went bankrupt the following year, listing almost $11 million in liabilities. In the summer of 1937 Billings and Kennedy took a summer trip through Europe which solidified their friendship. It impressed . He remained in the closet until his death in 1981 at the age of 65, according to Pitts. Their lifelong relationship caused some of the presidents advisers to fear Russian agents may use the information as blackmail. How remorseless Stephen Bear continued his arrogant antics up until Do not sell or share my personal information. Lem's team was attempting to take down a number of South Vietnamese officials. [55] Kennedy knew that homosexual behavior on the part of Billings had been revealed by a fellow Choate student during their years there. Jack, Lem, and Caroline enjoying the water, Hyannis Port, 1963. When Jack discovered that Billings was gay once declining an amorous overture from Billings the friendship is thought to have gone on unharmed. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. it would not surprise me knowing how most of the Kennedys (including ole Joe!) 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 crew jock, he met Jack at Choate, a boys' boarding school, in Wallingford, Connecticut (it is now co-ed). Billings worked on the 1960 campaign, and then lived at the White House for long stretches of time, a room permanently set aside for his visits. Variability in proportionate mortality in 363 Latin American cities by country. [4] Billings' first visit with the Kennedy family was for Christmas in Palm Beach in 1933, after that, he joined them for holidays, participated in family events, and was treated like a member of the family. 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. He was a beautiful baby," he ducked into a boiler room and wept. He wanted to be with him, to be a part of whatever he wanted to do to continue Jack's legacy." (Page 100). (Page 95), Jack and Lem on leave, Palm Beach, 1944"It's not clear whether Lem wanted to join the navy and see combat because Jack had, or because he wanted it for himself. [24], Billings visited the White House for most weekends during the Kennedy Administration. Soon I discovered that he glared with equal suspicion at anyone whose friendship with JFK postdated his own. 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. As of 2018 Lem Billings is 65 years (age at death) years old. 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. He had a very independent mind. 'They make fun of my voice. Jack" he said as he gazed at him softly, It's been a long time. Kennedy and Billings remained intimate in part by managing Jacks sex life, his career, and his family, together. Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want to remind everyone of that today. Allegheny Cemetery. (Page 307)Listen to a short phone conversation between the two of them: DAVID PITTS is a longtime journalist whose work has appeared in The Washington Post and other leading newspapers. Published online July 6, 2017. The young Kennedys took the casket and carried it around the gravesite before returning it to the burial plot. Advocate Contributors November 22 2013 4:00 AM EST In photos. 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Kennedy Anything Including Possible Affairs, oral history interview for the John F. Kennedy Library. Eunice Kennedy Shriver 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. "Jack was anxious to reach Lem and to find out how he was doing. After saying in a quiet voice, "He put up quite a fight. Have a nice one! "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. 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? 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 friend." Although Billings kept his homosexuality private, it wasn't entirely a secret. ", Matriarch Rose Kennedy wrote in her biography that Billings was "one of 'Jack's surprises,' " and soon found a place for himself: "He has really been part of 'our family' since that first time he showed up at our house. However, gay men played another role in Kennedys history that was not overtly sexual: they were part of an avant-garde cultural world that Jackie Kennedy cultivated, as she linked the Kennedy name to national arts, letters and music for the first time. The comments below have been moderated in advance. The affair was socially isolating for a very young and sexually un-liberated woman, causing her to deceive friends, boyfriends and ultimately her husband and children for most of her adult life. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings was an American businessman known for his close and long-time friendship with John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family. "He needed Lem Billings to get around better than a trained nurse" that would have made his political career impossible. 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 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. ', 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. Lem Billings also buffered JFK from the toll that infidelity took on the Kennedy marriage. "[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. Public Seminar is a journal of ideas, politics, and culture published by the Public Seminar Publishing Initiative at The New School. Criticisms from others in the Kennedy orbit insinuate that Jack took advantage of Lem's love for him without reciprocating. And did he personally lend a hand from time to time? [14] In 1958, he moved to the Manhattan advertising firm Lennen & Newell[15] as an advertising executive. 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. We are a non-profit organization, wholly supported by The New School, and by the generosity of our sponsors and readers. 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. [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. 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. He may have been the reason I never married.. A historian wrote that after Kennedy's assassination 50 years ago Billings was "probably the saddest of the Kennedy 'widows.'" From there we would helicopter right to his father's front lawn. You can follow her on Twitter. Allegheny Cemetery is one of the largest and oldest burial grounds in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "Lem was sixteen, and Jack was fifteen, when they met while working on the school yearbook at Choate School for Boys, the prestigious New England preparatory school located in Wallingford, Conn. From all accounts it was instant friendship. "[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." Published: 16:57 GMT, 9 June 2017 | Updated: 19:00 GMT, 9 June 2017. [67], On May 28, 1981, Billings died in his sleep following a heart attack in his Manhattan apartment. I really got to know them well. He helped handle even some of Jack's most personal affairs, Pitts writes in his book: "Jack's dates would be managed by Lem. While web sleuths and conspiracy theorists were looking for the person who killed her . (Page 24), Lem and Bobby, Waterville Valley, N.H., circa 1967"'When Bobby joined the political fray, no one was happier than Lem. The Kennedy Curse" Episode 205 -- Pictured: Grant Logan as JFK, Adam Cropper as Lem Billings -- John F. Kennedy, "Dunker" the dog, and Lem Billings at the Hague, during their Europe trip. To begin with, why would JFK give him a private room at the white house, to come and go at his leisure? I am gay and this relationship was more than relieving sexual tension! "[27] Arthur Schlesinger thought Billings "used to glare at me when we occasionally encountered each other in the company of JFK, and for a time I took this rather personally. [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. [47], Billings spent less time with the President in the fall of 1963. Billings once admitted that he made a pass at Jack early on. An autopsy report says Billings' cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. Jack's best friend was Lem and he would want me to remind everyone of that today." Who was Jack Lemmon's wife? Gore Vidal, the writer who claimed he viewed homosexuality as normal as heterosexuality, disparaged the JFK-Billings relationship during the Kennedy administration. Sometimes Jack bitched Lem out one letter saying, "Of all the cheap shit I have. Article. The president was famously believed to have affairs during their marriage. Authorities have identified the woman found dead Tuesday in a residence on Avenue B in Billings as Shanna Lynn Booth. Billings, Lem (Kirk LeMoyne), 1916-1981. Inside Matt Hancock's 41-hour battle to save his career when photo of 'a snog and heavy petting' with aide Will Vladimir Putin's empress pay the ultimate price for his war on the West? [37], Billings' role as "first friend" was assessed by many observers at the time and since. Lem was no civilian; he was a member of the Viet Cong. "[38] Another said: "Members of the president's staff thought of him as a 'handy old piece of furniture. Billings was so much a part of the extended Kennedy clan that he was regularly included in family gatherings, and Attorney General Robert Bobby Kennedy named his son Michael LeMoyne Kennedy. 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." 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 and Mary Lasker attend a party at the New York City home of Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. On June 14, 1977. Lemmon died about 9 p.m. Wednesday at USC/Norris Cancer Center with his wife, actress Felicia Farr, two children and a stepdaughter at his bedside. JFK's Best Friend Lem: Transcript. It would go on to become one of his most prized possessions." Collier and Horowitz described Billings, later in life, as invariably enmeshed in his late friend's larger family. And seated close to Kennedy is his shirtless, tanned and oiled best friend forever, his very gay chum, Kirk LeMoyne 'Lem' Billings. A telephone conversation between President Kennedy and Lem Billings. 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. Billings, for his part, never married and eventually became a marketing executive and worked on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. They were especially fanatical about football. Like many gay men of his generation, Lem may have been very comfortable with his own sexuality and the privacy of his relationship to Jack. Bobby Kennedy Jr. gave the eulogy. I'm not that kind of boy.'. 0 references. 1 leading cause of death among Native Americans in Montana during 2020 and the third-leading cause of death for the general population. Release of Secret JFK Assassination Records Delayed by Biden, Angering Some of the Kennedys. Claire Potter is professor of history at The New School, and Executive Editor of Public Seminar. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. "I was never lonely.". 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 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. He sent one letter to Lem's mother addressed to the American Field Service PO Box in New York. In many ways, Lem was like a father to me and he was the best friend I will ever have.' As we both know, homosexual relationships in English boarding schools were put down to adolescent hijinks and men *grew out of them*. "And everything ready for a big, big party.". Wikipedia (3 entries) edit. 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. JFK also shared women with male friends and relatives, a homoerotic impulse often seen in fraternities or other male organizations where men reinforce intimacy by having sex with the same woman. [28] He sat with the President's family at the Kennedy inauguration and walked not far behind his widow at the Kennedy funeral. They soon began spiraling toward their eventual demise. As they became close, Billings confided that his relationship with Kennedy was, in fact, sexual, to a point. Lem never really left Jacks orbit after boarding school.