But that's the kind of kid he was, deep into bad stuff.'. ', Rose Kennedy, however, had a different, more positive view of Billings. Lem married Rolla Jean Auer on September 17, 1950. Her general lilt, as best I can tell, is interrogative, but why should that be a surprise? Copyright 2022 by Louis Bayard. From all accounts, they became fast friends, drawn to each other by their Nature rushes forth, and the car dealers and the Hot Shoppes fall away before dogwoods and tulip trees, tatters of forsythia. President Kennedy was the first US president to meet Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace, when the Queen and Prince Philip hosted the president and first lady for dinner in 1961, according to the US Embassy and Consulates in the UK. It just reeks of arrogance, but I did not experience Bobby as arrogant.'. Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want to remind everyone of that today. Quirk immediately pegged Billings as gay, noting his "high, screechy laugh," and "high nasal whine of a voice.". According to biographer James Spada, When Kennedy tired of her, he passed her off to his brother in 1962. 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. 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. . Wanting to be around family . Lem was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1916 JFK appeared to be in love with the idea of Billings being in love with him. For the first time, I begin to wonder if Miss Bouvier is nervousthough it's difficult to confirm because she has a small voice and the wind seems to slap every word back down her gullet. This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. He served with the Navy in the Pacific during World War II, then attended the Harvard Graduate School of Business. Lem Billings. However, the relationship between You can't even talk to him. The only ties he now had to his family while in school was Lem Billings. 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. White House and advised Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in her redecoration of the Bobby finally earned his high school diploma in June 1972 at the experimental and alternative Palfrey Street School, in the Boston suburb of Watertown, where he arrived wearing dirty, faded jeans, smelling like patchouli oil. When the President was assassinated in Dallas, Lem was in I understand he's not worth it.". But the man married to Jackie Kennedy was quietly chided for his compulsive philandering. As one source told me, "Young Bobby replaced Jack in Lem's heart of hearts.". Ancestors. He refers to virtually all his girls that way. Try our online preplanning tool. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. While Billings' missive is long gone, a startled Kennedy responded, 'Please don't write to me on toilet paper anymore. He had his own room in the You didn't want to get too close to him.'. The more interested they appear to be, the more the boys will understand they don't have to be, in themselves, interesting, which is a relief to both parties. 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. '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, he said. Once again, Ethel Kennedy made just one appearance at the school, accompanied by Lem Billings, when Bobby was admitted, and 'everything had to go through Billings,' said Warren Geissinger, Bobby's Pomfret advisor, looking back years later. He had an older sister, Ruth (Speer) Steele, older brother, Eugene "Bud" Speer, and younger half-brother Lawrence "Larry" Payant. Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. Lem Billings (left) became a surrogate father to Bobby Kennedy Jr. (right). times, Lem might have been described as a "confirmed bachelor," although claims bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer, Lyndon B. Johnson demanded to be sworn in alongside Jackie Kennedy, How you can learn Gaelic literature and culture online with a top Irish university, The story behind Ireland's favorite song, The Cranberries "Zombie", How the Irish (and Welsh) invented romantic love. 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. 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. Infuriated, his mother demanded: 'Just leave home. White House. '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.'. Featuring interviews with Ben Bradlee, Gore Vidal, Ted Sorenson, friends, family, and many others . ", "I thought, 'What a great cat-bird seat he would've had, and wouldn't he make a great narrator?' On June 30, 1937 John F. "Jack" Kennedy embarked on a two-and-a-half-month tour of Europe with his friend Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings aboard the S.S. Washington. He's gone. I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another.. 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. 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. By Adam Salandra. He was kind of sinister. 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. He also is responsible He once called Billings the 'chief f****t at Camelot.' See the article in its original context from. RELATED:Jeffrey Epstein's Relationship With Princess Diana Explored In New Book. "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. I'm not that kind of boy.'. I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity. (In September, Jack joined Advocate Contributors November 22 2013 4:00 AM EST In photos. Lem Billings died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack on May 28, 1981, at the age of 65. 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. However, the sixth-season premiere showed in fact that the heroin fiasco was . Funeral homes; Help and advice. I mutter something on the order of yes, I must be, and she smiles. The mother of the house, Joanne 'Joey' Brode became a virtual surrogate mother to Bobby who notes years later, 'Ethel didn't even call Bobby on his birthday. Ethel virtually abandoned 14-year-old Bobby after RFK's assassination in 1968, suddenly and inexplicably turning over his care, feeding and education to Lem Billings. I was told by Billings, "Nothing ever goes directly to Ethel." He'd say, 'When you're shooting speed it's such a good rush. , Did President Kennedy meet the Queen of England? of 1 See additional information. His behavior, particularly his drug use, had the administration concerned that if something happened to the young Kennedy, such as an overdose or worse, all hell would come down on the school and tarnish its reputation. Their close relationship also caused his advisors to fear blackmail and political repercussions from Russian agents. His classmates were worried that he was going to kill himself, that we were going to find him dead.'. 'He seemed a very pleasant fellow,' said Bontecou, a classmate of Bobby's. The elder Kennedys at some point desired that the younger Kennedys: 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. ", 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.". His latest book, The Kardashians: An American Drama, will be published in September. At fourteen and fifteen, Bobby was proving his bad-boy bona fides with Jesse Pinkman zeal. Lem Billings and John F Kennedy were practically inseparable in prep school. 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. He escorted Mrs. Stephen Smith, sister of the late President, to . Biographer Sally Bedell Smith referred to Billings as probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows., RELATED:Details About Kristen Stewarts Fiance Dylan Meyers & Their Adorably Casual Proposal. "At one point he was sent by Jack to give Jackie the low-down about what she could expect once they were married. ISBN: 0306816237 ISBN13: 9780306816239 Jack and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship by David Pitts See Customer Reviews Select Format Hardcover $22.29 - $25.49 Paperback $12.09 - $19.04 Select Condition Like New -- Very Good Unavailable Good $12.09 Acceptable Unavailable New $19.04 Kirk LeMoyne Billings and John F. Kennedy. 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. In her memoir, published eleven years after the first Kennedy assassination, she wrote that Billings had 'remained Jack's lifelong close friend, confidante, sharer in old memories and new experiences . After Kennedys assassination, Billings was devastated. "He [Billings] was a witness to so much of what was going on. JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century 1917-1956, 6. 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 biographer Sally Bedell Smith, referred to Billings in one of her books as 'probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows.'. 'And there he was hunting rats out of that pile of dead sheep and cow carcasses. 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. I thought, anything goes with this guy. But the man married to Jackie Kennedy was quietly chided for his compulsive philandering. 'They make fun of my voice. 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 experiences", He has really been part of "our family" since that first time he showed up at our house as one of "Jack's surprises. '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.'. Im not that kind of boy.. 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. Kennedy.). Billings made his desire known while the two were still at school by writing Kennedy a love note on a piece of toilet paper. Of course, that gave most ofus the thought - does this guy have a job other than caring for Bobby? "Because of him, I was never lonely. For all I know, she's speculating about the Washington Senators' pennant chances. had no problem with his eye sight and saw action in North Africa. 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. The book is set in 1981, in New York City, where Jackie has settled after becoming the Widow Onassis and joining the working world. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. "Will we be chauffeuring her fianc, too? Lem P Speer <p>Lem P. Speer, 93, died peacefully in his home on November 20, 2021. None of it came as a surprise to his roommate, Fanning. 'But the one thing that struck me even at that tender age was that I felt Lem was just obsessed with Bobby the way he watched over him, the way he was hugely protective of him. ', Drugs had become part of the scene at Millbrook, and Bobby would become a major player. Monroe and JFK were first introduced in 1954 by Peter Lawford, JFK's brother-in-law. He noted that everywhere Jack went, Billings was sure to follow, like a puppy dog. according to David Pitts' 2007 biography Jack and Lem. We learn more curious facts when we read that Lem Billings became a 'surrogate father' to Bobby Kennedy, Jr., after the alleged death of RFK. If we had made that very different choice, we would've gone down a completely different road. It was he, not Ethel, who handled all of Bobby's expenses 'He would come over fairly frequently for dinner whenever he was in town,' she recalled. Brode had liberal views, didn't mind that Bobby smoked pot with Lem Billings in Bobby's room. Click to browse the Lem Billings Personal Papers KLBPP-001-003-p0015. their summer trip through Europe prior to World War II. Were I to search his facehis souldown to the most granular level, I would find no clue, for there is perhaps none to find. Ethel's alcoholic, philandering brother, George Skakel Jr., actually booted Billings in the a** at the church, knocking him into the aisle. But by the time he was with his second roommate, Jamie Fanning, the room had just a few photos, and hippie posters had replaced the funereal black sheets. While on the road, the only person he touched base with was Lem Billings. Their foresight led to the development of a funeral home dedicated to providing the best quality service possible to families at their . 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.' By clicking on a service below, you can view the obituary and service details, leave a condolence, send flowers, and if requested by the family attend a service live with remote attendance or view the service at a later time. who established the African-American LeMoyne-Owen College). "The result is this book, which looks at Jackie before she was Jackie the Jackie that we all think we know. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom was unable to personally travel to Kennedy's funeral because of her pregnancy with Prince Edward but later described "the unprecedented intensity of that wave of grief, mixed with something akin to despair, which swept over our people at the news of President Kennedy's Jacqueline Bouvier and U.S. Representative John F. Kennedy belonged to the same social circle and were formally introduced by a mutual friend, journalist Charles L. Bartlett, at a dinner party in May 1952. He was 65 years old. I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity.]. Bobby Kennedy Jr. read the eulogy. They shared an insatiable intellectual curiosity, a robust sense of humor, and a disdain for petty rules. She might be a cashier at the Montelle Pharmacy or Finland's deputy chief of mission, and you won't know until you've pulled up in front of her apartment building and seen her tottering through the front gate, a blonde in a crew-neck cardigan or a brunette in a bullet bra, and it's always the latter who raises her hand for you to kiss and the former who comes at you straight on like an encyclopedia salesman, and whoever it is remains "Miss" in our conversation until such time as the business is consummated, at which point she devolves into her component parts. Bobby's uncle, Ted, who had just faced the Chappaquiddick scandal, flew in from his senate office in Washington to stand up for his nephew. Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. "And we could have made a very different choice. a commission in the U.S. ', 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. 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. Bayard's novel takes place primarily in the months leading up to Jack and Jackie's wedding on Sept. 12, 1953. RELATED:Britney Spears Blames Her Mom For Conservatorship Inside Lynne Spearss Complicated Role In Singers Life, Quirk explained this '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. During their wedding in Greenwich, Connecticut, Ethels brother knocked Billings down the aisle at the church. 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. . Two months after Bobby was expelled, he along with a cousin, Bobby Sargent Shriver III, son of the former U.S. at a General Shoe store, Emerson Drug Company VP, and an advertising executive 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 piece featured here was a gift from Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings, a high school friend and lifelong confidant who helped Kennedy amass his scrimshaw collection, which included more than 30 . In the early spring of 1971, Bobby was being carefully watched by the administration because of drugs. Kennedy and Billings met in 1933 in their sophomore year at Choate Rosemary Hall, an exclusive Connecticut prep school. Queer question. Share your favorite stories with other history buffs in the IrishCentral History Facebook group. The funeral will be held in Pittsburgh. He's taken over."'. He headed the committee that oversaw the construction of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Lem Billings and John F. Kennedy met as teenagers at their Connecticut prep school and remained lifelong friends. 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. He truly loved the Kennedy's and as Jack's best friend. '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. When their brother Bobby married Ethel Skakel in a royal-like wedding in Greenwich, Connecticut, the staunchly conservative republican and seemingly homophobic Skakels let their feelings about Billings' gayness be known. He was born to Otis and Anna Speer on July 14, 1928, in Glasgow, Montana. ', White House visitor: Billings often spent the night at the White House, which upset Jackie Kennedy. Sydney Taylor is a writer who focuses on News and Entertainment topics. He later received 'Ethel never had any contact about her son. Remembering JFK's Bond with His Boyhood Best Friend, Who Never Got Over the Assassination, Robert McNamara's Son Craig Remembers Playing with JFK Jr. and Caroline Kennedy After JFK's Death, PEOPLE Picks the Best New Books of the Week, Jackie Kennedy Knew JFK Relationship Would Involve 'Heartbreak' & More Details from New Book, How Lady Bird Johnson and a Pregnant Jackie Kennedy Worked Together: 'The Wren Protected the Dove', Santana Talks New Album 'Africa Speaks', 20th Anniversary of 'Smooth' and Return to Woodstock, The Truth About Jackie Kennedy's Turbulent, Loving and Dramatic Bond with Sister Lee Radziwill, Happily Ever After: See All of the Celebrity Weddings of 2021. I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another. Their lifelong relationship caused some of the presidents advisers to fear Russian agents may use the information as blackmail. Billings said. According to Palfrey classmates, it was claimed that Bobby simply wrote his name - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - at the top and sent it in, and got accepted. 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. Love Irish history? "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. ', About the odd KennedyBillings relationship, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, one of JFK's five sisters, once remarked: 'It's hard to describe it as just friendship; it was a complete liberation of the spirit. the Navy, as described more fully in the separate Wikipedia biography of John the two men was friendship. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. of adding a fruit flavor to disguise the sodium citrate taste. He was born in Pittsburgh and graduated from Princeton. The Cold War was still raging, and there was fear Russian agents might use the friendship against Kennedy. Billings had once told Bobby that when. "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. Billings would later spend nights in the White House where he had his own room, Schoolboy crush? Cherrydale? After Kennedys election Billings would frequently be an overnight guest, which supposedly upset the First Lady, Jackie Kennedy. Quirk claims Billings would later confide in him that his relationship with Kennedy was sexual, to a point, and included oral sex, with Jack always on the receiving end., Their arrangement, Quirk says, 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, Jack was in love with Lem being in love with him and considered him the ideal follower adorer.. Tglich werden Tausende neue hochwertige Bilder hinzugefgt. 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. To virtually attend a service live Ambassador to France under JFK, were hauled into juvenile court in the town of Barnstable on Cape Cod on charges of marijuana possession. He was also a trustee of the Kennedy Library at Harvard. They both took drugs. Lem Billings, from a distinguished old American Protestant family, was taller, bigger, stronger, with a high-pitched voice and a loud laugh. Everything involving Bobby had to go through Billings. Abruptly, she stands and gives us two quick waves and then, as she jogs to the passenger side, comes briefly ablaze in the headlights. 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. I'm not that kind of boy.. We're due at Bobby and Ethel's that night, but Jack instead cuts across Chain Bridge. According to Jerry Oppenheimer, author of RFK Jr.: Robert F. Kennedy and the Dark Side of the Dream, Kennedy responded, please dont write to me on toilet paper anymore. 'I got the impression he felt an obligation that somebody had to care for Bobby because Mrs. Kennedy was not a hands-on mother at all. Mind you, there's nothing in that honorific Miss to signify a lady of distinction. In Lem, Jack found a confidant and caretaker; Jack was frequently ill while at Choate, but Lem kept his spirits high .

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