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.". 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. 'We had a couple of calls from Jackie - "How's my nephew doing?" Lem Billings passed away from a heart attack at 65 in 1981. 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). JAMIE RICHARDSON: John F. Kennedy had no shortage of people who considered themselves friends of the 35th president. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he . I understand he's not worth it.". Find the obituary of Lem Speer (1928 - 2021) from Billings, MT. I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity.]. This was at the end of their final presidential debate at Hofstra University in New York in October, 2008. ], However, Oppenheimer said, 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., A source had told Oppenheimer, Young Bobby replaced Jack in Lems heart of hearts.. 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. "Because of him, I was never lonely. getting discharged in 1946. Brode had liberal views, didn't mind that Bobby smoked pot with Lem Billings in Bobby's room. Somebody who was also not of the Kennedys, but very much wanted to be one of them. 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. Take a look inside Dublin's most stylish townhouse, Number 31. ', 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. And Bobby was sort of always unkempt.'. I'm not that kind of boy.. He had an older sister, Ruth (Speer) Steele, older brother, Eugene "Bud" Speer, and younger half-brother Lawrence "Larry" Payant. quoted from the book: "Jack made a big difference in my life," Leave your condolences to the family on this memorial page or send flowers to show you care. ', In fact, in private, she ranted, 'You've dragged your family's name through the mud.'. Millbrook School would be the first of three schools that Bobby would attend before he was able to secure a high school diploma. And seated close to Kennedy is his shirtless, tanned and oiled best friend forever, his very gay chum, Kirk LeMoyne 'Lem' Billings. Lem Billings and John F. Kennedy met as teenagers at their Connecticut prep school and remained lifelong friends. Billings said. the most part, commented to a White House usher, "He (Lem) has been a house 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. 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. 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. Kirk LeMoyne Billings, a retired advertising executive and a friend of President John F. Kennedy, died Wednesday at his Manhattan apartment. 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. "Yesterday was Jack's birthday. 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. Only a very liberal school [like Pomfret] that needed money would take him.'. 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. What happened when Jackie Kennedy and Queen Elizabeth II met? 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. of 1 Lem also worked for JFK in the West Virginia and Wisconsin primaries John F. Kennedy, whose 100th birthday is being celebrated this year with a Kennedy Centennial postage stamp, TV memorials, a slew of books, and much media coverage, was revered as the 35th president of the United States. When JFK was assassinated, he turned his attention to his nephew Bobby Kennedy Jr. Writer Gore Vidal once called Billings the chief f****t at Camelot and said Kennedy felt quite comfortable in the company of homosexuals as long as they were smart enough to hold his interest.. ', White House visitor: Billings often spent the night at the White House, which upset Jackie Kennedy. Years later, when Bobby was an undergraduate at Harvard, it would be Billings the boy's Svengali-like surrogate father who took control of his life after RFK's assassination who would convince Bobby that one day he could become the next Kennedy president of the United States. The hearing, lasting less than a half-hour, was held in private. 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?'. I can't even tell. Kennedy and Billings met in 1933 in their sophomore year at Choate Rosemary Hall, an exclusive Connecticut prep school. 'There was no gnashing of teeth and sobbing in the context of his leaving. By Adam Salandra. I mutter something on the order of yes, I must be, and she smiles. 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. Read More. And, for once, Billings, who serves as the story's narrator, has as big a voice as the Kennedys. 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.' Lem Billings (left) became a surrogate father to Bobby Kennedy Jr. (right). He was born in Pittsburgh and graduated from Princeton. ', As Quirk further observed, 'Jack was in love with Lem being in love with him and considered him the ideal follower-adorer.'. Quirk had met Billings in the mid-Forties when both were volunteers in Jack Kennedy's first congressional campaign. While Billings' missive is long gone, a startled Kennedy responded, "Please don't write to me on toilet paper anymore. The story about Lem Billings '39 and JFK was very interesting and even moving (cover story, April 12). 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. In Victorian 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. 7:44 PM. 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. The elder Kennedys at some point desired that the younger Kennedys: Yesterday was Jack's birthday. ", "We'd have to drive clear to New York for that. Like the rest of the free world, Billings was devastated when President Kennedy was assassinated. 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. 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. 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. Billings had a romantic relationship with JFK's nephew, Bobby Kennedy Jr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And The Dark Side Of The Dream Her general lilt, as best I can tell, is interrogative, but why should that be a surprise? 11:10 EDT 13 Oct 2015 at the Manhattan advertising firm Lennen & Newell. 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. and Jack first met at Choate Rosemary Hall in 1933 when Lem was 17 and Jack was 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. Billings reportedly told Kennedy of his romantic intentions in prep school (JFK pictured chatting with Marilyn Monroe and Robert F Kennedy). 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. 2023 Meadowrockalpacas. Billings Funeral Home. He headed the committee that oversaw the construction of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. A telephone conversation between President Kennedy and Lem 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.'. But Bayard says that the reality of their marriage including years of reporting about Jack's infidelities gave him a "degree of empathy" for Jackie when approaching her character in the novel. by the end of his own lifetime he would have been described as gay. Did OJ Simpson's Son Jason Kill Nicole Brown & Ron Goldman? They remained close until Kennedy's assassinationBillings had his own room in the White House, and Joe Kennedy Sr. called him "a second son." (Which is odd considering JFK . He served with the Navy in the Pacific during World War II, then attended the Harvard Graduate School of Business. They continued to Princeton He passed away peacefully at home February. As they became close, Billings confided that his relationship with Kennedy was, in fact, sexual, to a point. Young Bobby replaced Jack in Lem's heart of hearts, one source told Oppenheimer, who is the author of the book Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And The Dark Side Of The Dream. '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. 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 . 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. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. Because it was the boys' first offense, they were placed on probation. Please consult your doctor before taking any action. 'Bobby would take his hawk and go hunting rats in the midst of the rotting cow carcasses and he sort of reveled in how off- the-wall that was. Bobby, do you have clothes?" As he acknowledged some years later: 'Soon after my father's death I made a series of choices involving drugs that started me down a road from which I had to struggle to return.'. Kirk LeMoyne Billings, a retired advertising executive and a friend of President John F. Kennedy, died Wednesday at his Manhattan apartment. Billings would later spend nights in the White House where he had his own room, Schoolboy crush? 'Haggard, tired' Ethel was ready for some calm. 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. 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.'. Their lifelong relationship caused some of the presidents advisers to fear Russian agents may use the information as blackmail. Kirk Lemoyne Billings Memorial Page. Keep reading for an exclusive excerpt from Jackie & Me. The President never failed to introduce Lem formally to visiting heads of state, dignitaries, and celebrities, but the introduction was never simply a matter of "I would like you to meet my friend, LeMoyne Billings." "He'd introduce me as Congressman Billings or Senator Billings, and even General Billings," Lem would later recall . Adapted from New York Times bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer's explosive new book, Mom who lost both sons to fentanyl blasts laughing Biden, Missing hiker buried under snow forces arm out to wave to helicopter, Pavement where disabled woman gestured at cyclist before fatal crash, Isabel Oakeshott receives 'menacing' message from Matt Hancock, Pro-Ukrainian drone lands on Russian spy planes exposing location, 'Buster is next!' ', Another classmate, Brian Carroll, remembered 'this odd character' Billings, who was always on campus fawning over Bobby: '"Bobby, are you eating? After Kennedys election Billings would frequently be an overnight guest, which supposedly upset the First Lady, Jackie Kennedy. Advocate Contributors November 22 2013 4:00 AM EST In photos. And George Terrian, the alcoholic husband of Ethel Kennedy's alcoholic, pill-popping sister, Georgeann, told me in interviews for my book 'The Other Mrs. Kennedy' that, 'Everyone in the family knew Lem was q***r the Kennedys, the Skakels, everyone.'. A unique and lasting tribute for a . reason I never got married.". His latest book, The Kardashians: An American Drama, will be published in September. One of the leaders of the group, Rob O. In both the book and real life, Bayard explains that Billings played a key part in the couple's romance. How chilly it is for March. 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. Lem Billings. I'm not that kind of boy.'. and helped gather delegates at the Democratic convention in Los Angeles when JFK Lem even wrote John a love note on toilet paper . Lem had several jobs including selling Coca-Cola dispensers to drugstores, working With "Jack and Lem," Pitts has indeed turned over a new stone. ', Jacqueline Kennedy was reportedly unhappuabout her husband and Billings' three decade long relationship. She contacted the headmaster on several occasions to ask about the boy's well- being. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. 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. Kirk LeMoyne Lem Billings (April 15, 1916 May 28, 1981) was a close friend of President John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family. Born 15 Apr 1916 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, United States. After Jack Kennedy's election to the presidency, Billings was a constant presence and overnight guest at the White House. But it also looks at her through this particular prism of another outsider, Lem Billings. I will stand by him. I took drugs with him. However, the sixth-season premiere showed in fact that the heroin fiasco was . In the spring of 1972, with graduation approaching, Bobby took the SAT college board exam, and filled out his application for college. "He [Billings] was a witness to so much of what was going on. When we first happen upon her, her face is angled away, as though she's cocking her ear for a nightingale. Try our online preplanning tool. 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. "He also reveals that there was this crucial moment," says Bayard. "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. ', 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. through his life. Secret Service agents William Greer (driving) and Roy Kellerman are in the front seats. President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas 50 years ago, leaving behind a mourning nation and his gay best friend, Lem Billings. 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. ', By ", 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 have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity. He's gone. He had his own room in the White House and advised Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in her redecoration of the White House. Jack for his health reasons and Lem for his eye sight. Fanning, a self- described wild child at the time, recalled Bobby's visits to the pit, which he had witnessed, as 'grotesque. Click to browse the Lem Billings Personal Papers KLBPP-001-003-p0015. 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.. The funeral will be held in Pittsburgh. He was by all accounts JFK's best. 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. 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. University until Kennedy withdrew for medical reasons. 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. (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. 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. 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. Abruptly, she stands and gives us two quick waves and then, as she jogs to the passenger side, comes briefly ablaze in the headlights. Reprinted by permission. Im 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. Lem was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1916 Quirk alleged thatBilling and Kennedys relationship included oral sex with JFK always being on the receiving end. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want to remind everyone of that today. But as I began to research him, I realized he was also very good friends with Jackie," the novelist says. JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century 1917-1956, 6. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he sometimes acted as escort for several of the Kennedy women . , In office January 20, 1961 November 22, 1963. The result is a meditation on the definitions . 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. Billings Funeral Home - Woodward Add Photos Add a Memory Henry Leroy Ray Henry Leroy Ray Woodward - Henry was born June 11,1955 in Amarillo TX. the bond between Billings and Kennedy became so strong that Billings stayed back according to David Pitts' 2007 biography Jack and Lem. Lem Billings had a remarkable friendship with JFK that lasted from 1932, when the two met as classmates in prep school, until JFK's assassination in 1963. But was reportedly upset that her husband spent so much time with him, and that he often stayed overnight at the White House. I know he had all that baggage with his father, but being in that pit that was the kind of thing he would do. 'We never saw Ethel on the campus again. "Because he was so handsome, and he was so charming, and he just had that way about him.". As George Terrien, Ethel's brother-in-law declared, 'Everyone knew Lem was queer - the Kennedys, the Skakels, everyone.'.
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