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. His latest book, The Kardashians: An American Drama, will be published in September. They were especially fanatical about football. (Page 100). "[52] One historian wrote that after the 1963 assassination Billings was: "probably the saddest of the Kennedy 'widows'. 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 . Like the rest of the free world, Billings was devastated when President Kennedy was assassinated. An autopsy report says Billings' cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. (Page 276). and yet you still think JFK was alive in December 1963! Lem Chesmore is a 34-year-old Billings native who grew up on the sport. Kirk LeMoyne Billings and John F. Kennedy. 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 certainly didn't have the same interest in politics and women that Jack had. Details of Lem Billings and JFK's three decade relationship are revealed in 'Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And The Dark Side Of The Dream'. 'They make fun of my voice. I have also studied the forensics of the assassination for 21 years. Perhaps, however, Billings simply chose not to come out for his own reasons, devoting much of the rest of his life to preserving the memory of the man he loved. 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.. Lem Billings passed away from a heart attack at 65 in 1981. "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. This essay was originally published at OutHistory.orgon November 22, 2013; it has been updated and re-edited. For many other Americans as well, Bobby became the last best hope for resurrecting Camelot, for a return to the kind of liberal idealism that Jack had epitomized. Lem profited from the friendship--he was an official member of the Kennedy clan, he went to fancy White House parties and even had his own friendship at the presidential mansion at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. They werent even related. Kirk Lem Lemoyne Billings (15 Apr 1916 - 28 May 1981) 0 references . "The agency, which was the 13th largest in the United States in 1971, went bankrupt the following year, listing almost $11 million in liabilities. Claire Potteris professor of history at The New School, and Executive Editor of Public Seminar. 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. To order a copy, click here. Lem's raison d'tre was Jack Kennedy. Indeed, it often seems that Kennedy did treat people who loved him for granted. In 2009, Robert Dallek published part of an interview with Barbara Gamerekian, a former White House aide, who named three prominent women, two secretaries nicknamed Fiddle and Faddle and a college sophomore who couldnt type (Alford) as a few of the sexual partners who helped the President release his daily tensions, often in the White House swimming pool or on official trips around the nation, where women were sometimes flown in on separate planes so that they could be available. He was by all accounts JFK's best friend . Kennedy. "[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. 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. (Page 53), Jack, Lem, and Dunker, the dog they bought on their European tour in 1937"Jack and Lem failed to make any friends in Germany, unlike in the other countries they visited, except one -- Dunker, a lovable Dachshund that they ran into on their way to Nuremberg. Date (s) of Materials: 25 March 1964. As Billings told researchers for an oral history interview for the John F. Kennedy Library, the two met as teenagers at Choate Preparatory School for boys in Wallingford, Connecticut, in 1933, while working on the student yearbook. In its final year, Lennen & Newell had domestic billings of $140 million, and Mr. Toigo had said that the agency was worth between $12 million and $15 million and that he owned about 95 percent of the stock. "'I'm sure he's already organizing everything in heaven so it will be completely ready for us . (Page 24), Lem and Bobby, Waterville Valley, N.H., circa 1967"'When Bobby joined the political fray, no one was happier than Lem. During that time, he told researchers, "All the kids came over to see me. His mother was a Mayflower descendant and his great-grandfather Francis Julius LeMoyne was a prominent abolitionist linked to the underground railroad who helped establish what is today known as LeMoyne-Owen College. 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And did he personally lend a hand from time to time? "[59], In 1964, Billings was named to select a memorial to Kennedy to be placed in the Kennedy Center. It would be the last Christmas in which the United States would be at peace for more than four years. He escorted Mrs. Stephen Smith, sister of the late President, to . He never lost this.". Lem was no civilian; he was a member of the Viet Cong. [18], In 1960, on leave from his job, he worked on Kennedy's presidential campaign. (Page 80), Lem examines a damaged ambulance door following the Messerschmitt attack, Sirte, Libya, 1943. Billings once admitted that he made a pass at Jack early on. 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?'. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings (April 15, 1916 - May 28, 1981) was a prep school roommate and then lifelong close friend of President John F. Kennedy (May 29, 1917 - November 22, 1963). 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. Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. 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. Why should a historian care about Kennedys sex life at all? Both boys kept diaries on the trip, although Lem's was more of a scrapbook. Otherwise he attended without female accompaniment. [62], After the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, Billings became depressed and started to drink in excess, an addiction that plagued him for most of his life. He remained in the closet until his death in 1981 at the age of 65, according to Pitts. Billings served with Sargent Shriver as a trustee for the Kennedy family trusts. 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. From 1933 to 1946, Billings and JFK exchanged letters, with Jack often antagonizing Lem in the correspondence. "[25]:244 Sometimes he stayed for longer periods. Adapted from New York Times bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer's explosive new book, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: RFK Jr. and the Dark Side of the Dream. [50] In 2006, looking back to the Kennedy Administration, Ben Bradlee said: "I suppose it's known that Lem was gay.It impressed me that Jack had gay friends. 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. He was also plagued by ill health. 12 pdf icon; leading cause of death data, including firearm, homicide, and drug poisoning mortality data, and infant mortality . As a younger man, he also served as something of a "go-between" for a young Jack Kennedy and the woman who would become Kennedy's wife, Jackie Bouvier, in 1950s Washington, D.C. He remained in the closet until his death in. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. Allegheny Cemetery is one of the largest and oldest burial grounds in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The story about Lem Billings '39 and JFK was very interesting and even moving (cover story, April 12). In addition to Lem, Kennedys bisexual brother in law, actor Peter Lawford, and novelist Gore Vidal, a relative of Jackies, were frequent visitors and playmates. Billings had once told Bobby that. Ethel's alcoholic, philandering brother, George Skakel Jr., actually booted Billings in the a** at the church, knocking him into the aisle. 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. Lem never really left Jacks orbit after boarding school. Access Restriction Status: Open. [55] Kennedy knew that homosexual behavior on the part of Billings had been revealed by a fellow Choate student during their years there. Of course, he had always loved the Cape and was completely happy there.'" Lem's team was attempting to take down a number of South Vietnamese officials. He had a very independent mind. Billings as a teenager was 6' 2", weighed 175 pounds, and was the strongest member of the Choate crew. [26] When the First Lady was away, Billings organized White House dinner parties for the President and old friends,[27] and when the President traveled he kept the First Lady company. Gore Vidal, the writer who claimed he viewed homosexuality as normal as heterosexuality, disparaged the JFK-Billings relationship during the Kennedy administration. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/661850801540d07650fabf52ced798bc30b638466ac906855c1e19da231d68b5.jpg. Still, the Kennedy clan accepted even welcomed Lem Billings into their exclusive inner-circle, practically adopting him, and he became a part of the family. 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. As they became close, Billings confided that his relationship with Kennedy was, in fact, sexual, to a point. [20] He later said: "I realized that I did not want to work for the president because I felt it would change our relationship. [11], After working on Kennedy's successful campaign for Congress in 1946, Billings toured seven Latin American countries with Robert F. For Billings' funeral, some of the younger Kennedys served as pallbearers (as Billings himself had done for some of their own, like the slain Sen. Robert F. Kennedy). (Note my reply) I think the interview I have reference to is less than a year ago! 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. In many ways, Lem was like a father to me and he was the best friend I will ever have.' Not just any member, either, he was an assassin and the leader of a Viet Cong death squad who had been targeting and killing South Vietnamese National Police officers and their families. Billings took leave from his business career to work on Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign. COVID-19 became the No. He believed Billings loved Kennedy. it would not surprise me knowing how most of the Kennedys (including ole Joe!) 'Haven't heard a word from you,' Jack wrote. Among the snapshots is one that shows a handsome pre-presidential Kennedy sunning himself, sprawled on a chaise at Patriarch Joe Kennedy's Palm Beach estate. Mid-1930s. Wiggins was serving a 28 years . Billings then prepared responses and read them aloud to her. In which 20 year old John F Kennedy's best friend shows up on his doorstep one evening. Billings repeated his senior year so that he and Kennedy could graduate from Choate together in 1935. This was at the end of their final presidential debate at Hofstra University in New York in October, 2008. It contained scores of photographs of himself and Jack in Europe, as well as a handwritten narrative. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later.