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by the end of his own lifetime he would have been described as gay. 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. Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you. 'Ethel never had any contact about her son. But it was the only boarding school that Lem Billings could find that would admit him. 'I never could figure out why Ethel would let Lem have such an intimate relationship,' he once declared. I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another.". In 1964, Billings was named to head a ten-person committee to select a memorial to Kennedy to be placed in the Kennedy Center. With "Jack and Lem," Pitts has indeed turned over a new stone. the most part, commented to a White House usher, "He (Lem) has been a house All in all, there's a certain relief in being able to retreat into the Crestline's back seat. By easy degrees, she turns around and bestows on me a fuller version of that first smile. It was Bobby Kennedy Jr. who gave the eulogy. Among the faculty there may have been a collective sigh of reliefbecause things with Bobby would have only escalated and the attitude was, okay, he's now the next school's problem.'. You can't even talk to him. Kirk Lemoyne Billings Memorial Page. 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. 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 . 'I can't say that I saw him put a needle in his arm,' he stated, 'but he talked like he was and he bragged about it. Kirk LeMoyne Lem Billings (April 15, 1916 May 28, 1981) was a close friend of President John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family. See the article in its original context from. 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. In the early spring of 1971, Bobby was being carefully watched by the administration because of drugs. In the spring of 1972, with graduation approaching, Bobby took the SAT college board exam, and filled out his application for college. the two men was friendship. and helped gather delegates at the Democratic convention in Los Angeles when JFK Kennedy was allegedly on the receiving end of oral sex. While Billings' missive is long gone, a startled Kennedy responded, "Please don't write to me on toilet paper anymore. But, the Skakels had previously been homophobic to Billings. "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. 'We had a couple of calls from Jackie - "How's my nephew doing?" Obituaries act as quiet reminders to help us to remember them and all we enjoyed with them while they were with us, a celebration of their life. he's stoned." Extent: 82 digital pages Collection: As George Terrien, Ethel's brother-in-law declared, 'Everyone knew Lem was queer - the Kennedys, the Skakels, everyone.'. When Bobby Kennedy, His latest book, The Kardashians: An American Drama, will be published in September. President Jimmy Carter broke royal protocol by kissing the Queen Mother on the lips during his visit in 1977. Keep reading for an exclusive excerpt from Jackie & Me. I still to this day see him standing there in his black necktie that he wore every day over a blue oxford Brooks Brothers shirt and a beat-up tweed jacket, and wearing the wildest bell-bottoms that were purple with Day-Glo green stripes like he was some soul band guy, and in his funky boots. Initially, Bobby's dorm room with his first roommate had become a veritable shrine to Bobby's father. Secret Service agents William Greer (driving) and Roy Kellerman are in the front seats. You didn't want to get too close to him.'. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: RFK Jr. and the Dark Side of the Dream. 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. ", But Billings was embarrassed about his effeminate mannerisms - he'd remain publicly closeted for his lifetime. 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. '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. Her knees are drawn protectively to her chest, and there's something quite exposed about her. Were I to search his facehis souldown to the most granular level, I would find no clue, for there is perhaps none to find. He truly loved the Kennedy's and as Jack's best friend. a year so that he and Kennedy could graduate from Choate together in 1935," However, according to Lawrence J. Quirk, author of The Kennedys In Hollywood JFKs reaction to Billings quickly changed. 'He seemed a very pleasant fellow,' said Bontecou, a classmate of Bobby's. Lem was John F Kennedy's best friend. But the one thing that struck me even at that tender age was that I felt Lem was just obsessed with Bobby. Lem had extremely poor eye sight and a high-pitched voice. him to drink. Find the obituary of Lem Speer (1928 - 2021) from Billings, MT. , How old was the Queen when she met JFK? Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. Lem Billings was called and, according to Donn Wright, who became the new headmaster, 'he didn't try to change anybody's minds. "Because of him," Lem Billings once said of President Kennedy, "I was never lonely" Ethel Kennedy "booted" Bobby, Jr. out of the Hickory Hill home at age 14 and basically fed him to Billings. Jackie O. From 1946 to 1948, Lem attended Harvard Business School. In a 2007 Lem Billings had heard about the school from Adam Yarmolinsky, a one-time trusted aide to both RFK and JFK, whose son had graduated a year before Bobby's arrival. A name he kept stumbling across was Lem Billings, who was identified as John Kennedy's longtime best friend. Later Years. Ancestors. As one source told me, 'Young Bobby replaced Jack in Lem's heart of hearts.'. Brode had liberal views, didn't mind that Bobby smoked pot with Lem Billings in Bobby's room. ', Quirk, who acknowledged his own bisexuality, asserted that Billings 'believed that this arrangement 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. Beyond love, Jackie & Me is also about how decisions can define us. He's taken over."'. At fourteen and fifteen, Bobby was proving his bad-boy bona fides with Jesse Pinkman zeal. Lem Billings was the ultimate "wing man." Billings was quietly gay, at a time when such things were not admitted to, particularly for those people who wanted to stay in high society. Enter your email below to have our funeral service notifications delivered to you. JFK appeared to be in love with the idea of Billings being in love with him. 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. He had an older sister, Ruth (Speer) Steele, older brother, Eugene "Bud" Speer, and younger half-brother Lawrence "Larry" Payant. 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. Quirk claims he first met Billings at Kennedys first congressional campaignand, as they became closer, he says Billings claimed that his relationship with Kennedy was sexual. When he was in his late 20s, he'd be arrested for heroin possession, after overdoing on an airplane flight, on his way to get help for his addiction. He served with the Navy in the Pacific during World War II, then attended the Harvard Graduate School of Business. Naval Reserve and served in the South Pacific eventually Photo / Getty Images. This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. through his life. Or see our headlights slicing through the trees? had no problem with his eye sight and saw action in North Africa. 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. 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 said. His classmates were worried that he was going to kill himself, that we were going to find him dead.'. Millbrook School would be the first of three schools that Bobby would attend before he was able to secure a high school diploma. But the man married to Jackie Kennedy was quietly chided for his compulsive philandering. 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. 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, reports Daily Mail. JAMIE RICHARDSON: John F. Kennedy had no shortage of people who considered themselves friends of the 35th president. "They make fun of my voice. 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. 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. Jack was in love with Lem being in love with him and considered him the ideal follower adorer.. I mutter something on the order of yes, I must be, and she smiles. For all I know, she's speculating about the Washington Senators' pennant chances. After Jack Kennedy's election to the presidency, Billings was a constant presence and overnight guest at the White House. After Kennedys election Billings would frequently be an overnight guest, which supposedly upset the First Lady, Jackie Kennedy. Jerry Oppenheimer For Dailymail.com. 'He played with Bobby, if you will, more than a father probably would, was just devoted to him, and there was reallyl honest affection between them.'. Published in The Elkhart Truth from Feb. 20 to Feb. 21, 2023. 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 was born to Otis and Anna Speer on July 14, 1928, in Glasgow, Montana. Billings maintained close ties to the Kennedys and their children Doesn't she hear the car's tires on the gravel? The result is a meditation on the definitions . Her general lilt, as best I can tell, is interrogative, but why should that be a surprise? She never visited.'. Billings, LeMoyne Date (s) of Materials: 11 February 1942-31 December 1946 Folder Description: This folder contains letters to John F. Kennedy from his friend Kirk Lemoyne (Lem) Billings on subjects such as Kennedy's health, Kennedy's Naval service, and the Pacific Ocean Theater of World War II. , Did President Kennedy meet the Queen of England? Mr. Billings and Mr. Kennedy. I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity.]. (In September, Jack joined I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity. ", "I thought, 'What a great cat-bird seat he would've had, and wouldn't he make a great narrator?' It's the last year of . She never was here.' But the man married to Jackie Kennedy was quietly chided for his compulsive philandering. When the President was assassinated in Dallas, Lem was in Hidden away high up on a bookshelf was a small bronze bust of his father. Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want me to remind everyone of that today. JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century 1917-1956, 6. dachshund they named Dunker but had to give him up because of Jack's allergies. Billings had once told Bobby that when. Their foresight led to the development of a funeral home dedicated to providing the best quality service possible to families at their . ', In fact, in private, she ranted, 'You've dragged your family's name through the mud.'. By Sydney Taylor Written on Nov 06, 2021. 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. Like the rest of the free world, Billings was devastated when President Kennedy was assassinated. '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. Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" 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. and Jack first met at Choate Rosemary Hall in 1933 when Lem was 17 and Jack was During their wedding in Greenwich, Connecticut, Ethels brother knocked Billings down the aisle at the church. Tglich werden Tausende neue hochwertige Bilder hinzugefgt. Suddenly she became angry at Bobby, ordered him below deck, literally beat him with a hairbrush, and once again ordered him to get out of her life. 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? 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. Nature rushes forth, and the car dealers and the Hot Shoppes fall away before dogwoods and tulip trees, tatters of forsythia. their summer trip through Europe prior to World War II. Jackie Kennedy, who liked Billings for He was also plagued by ill health. The elder Kennedys at some point desired that the younger Kennedys: Love Irish history? Lem P. Speer, 93, died peacefully in his home on November 20, 2021. This page is created to honor his memory and is dedicated to his family and friends. Jack and Lem met at Choate in 1933. Fanning, a self- described wild child at the time, recalled Bobby's visits to the pit, which he had witnessed, as 'grotesque. He possessed a 'high, screechy laugh' and a 'high, nasal whine of a voice' that, according to Quirk, 'instantly tabbed him as gay.'. If we had made that very different choice, we would've gone down a completely different road. 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. Lem Billings would play many roles in Bobby's life, as adventurer accompanying him on expeditions in the wild, as fellow druggie, and as his Dear Abby, advising him on who to date and who not to. Lem Billings died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack on May 28, 1981, at the age of 65. Billings and. defeated. education of free black Americans after the Confederate States of America was Michelotti-Sawyers Mortuary and Crematory is a locally and independently owned and operated full service funeral home and crematory. It was pretty clear he had some intravenous drug use back then, and he was the only person we knew who did.'. As they became close, Billings confided that his relationship with Kennedy was, in fact, sexual, to a point. Bobby was an edgy, edgy guy. Heide Knop. In 1941, Jack and Lem both tried out for the military but were both declined, In 1942, Lem joined the Ambulance Corps, an organization that ", 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.". Supposedly. Pitts said. In Lem, Jack found a confidant and caretaker; Jack was frequently ill while at Choate, but Lem kept his spirits high . See additional information. His name was Lem Billings. Getty Images Billings, for his part, never married and eventually became a marketing executive and worked on the John F. Kennedy Center for the. Mr. Billings was active in all of John Kennedy's campaigns as well as those of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. It was all quite bizarre. to Frederic Tremaine Billings, a prominent physician and Romaine LeMoyne (direct Of the Kennedys, only Bobby's uncle Ted had shown up at Millbrook to see how his nephew was doing. Lem was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1916 He was also a trustee of the Kennedy Library at Harvard. The Cold War was still raging, and there was fear Russian agents might use the friendship against Kennedy. 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 . But was reportedly upset that her husband spent so much time with him, and that he often stayed overnight at the White House. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Kennedy.). In the summer of 1934, future United States president John F Kennedy was in his junior year at the prestigious Choate School in Connecticut. Wright said he never heard from Bobby's mother after the decision was made to boot her son. I was told by Billings, "Nothing ever goes directly to Ethel." Mark Bontecou, a scion of the wealthy Bontecou family of Millbrook, which had once owned a good part of the land on which Millbrook School resided, also recalled how Billings was a constant companion of Bobby's during the school year. In his heartfelt and rather candid eulogy, Bobby 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. I took drugs with him. If you have recently lost a family member or friend, we hope that you will accept our condolences. 'People think I'm a joke,' he once acknowledged. descendant of John LeMoyne, a French physician and Dr. Francis LeMoyne, an abolitionist 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. Lem Billings relaxed on the Kennedys' Palm Beach estate the summer of 1936. 'Haggard, tired' Ethel was ready for some calm. 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. "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 . 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. "And we could have made a very different choice. Read More. Even when Bobby was invited to weekend lunches at the Bontecou estate, it was Billings who accompanied him. Details of Lem Billings and JFK's three decade relationship are revealed in 'Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And The Dark Side Of The Dream'. Ethel's alcoholic, philandering brother, George Skakel Jr., actually booted Billings in the a** at the church, knocking him into the aisle. Bayard's novel takes place primarily in the months leading up to Jack and Jackie's wedding on Sept. 12, 1953. "And he also played a very important role in the courtship between Jackie Bouvier and Jack Kennedy. White House. F. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings, was a prep school roommate and then lifelong close friend of President John F. Kennedy. 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 . They adopted a little 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. 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?". 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. "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. He was born in Pittsburgh and graduated from Princeton. Kirk LeMoyne Billings and John F. Kennedy. President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas 50 years ago, leaving behind a mourning nation and his gay best friend, Lem Billings.