With his political influence, Jack Daniels became a monopoly as the only legal whiskey distillery in 1947 in Tennessee. ", As Pitts writes, Jack "wasn't going to let anyone control his life, and he certainly wasn't going to let anyone choose his friends.". He believed Billings loved Kennedy. Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. 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? We are a non-profit organization, wholly supported by The New School, and by the generosity of our sponsors and readers. 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. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he sometimes acted as escort for several of the Kennedy women. [37], Billings' role as "first friend" was assessed by many observers at the time and since. "[41] Gore Vidal, who was banned from the White House after a run-in with Billings,[42] was critical of Billings,[43] but also thought Billings played an important role as an aide to Kennedy, who was often ill or in pain. But there is also an important story about race, and social class, to be told here. "'Of course, there was always Cape Cod in Massachusetts when the president wanted to be near the water,' Lem remarked. 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. 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. I'm enclosing a letter to Lem, which I wish you would forward, as I haven't any idea where he is. Pamela Long Wiggins, who was convicted of accessory to murder after the fact in connection with the Billings murders, died Thursday in state prison. Ted Sorensen called him "an admirer almost a fawning admirer of his friend. We might even attach the adjectives exclusive and romantic to this youthful friendship. I was pleased to note that things picked up after your arrival,' referring to Montgomery's battle with Rommel at El Alamein. They werent even related. Kirk LeMoyne Billings and John F. Kennedy. A historian wrote that after Kennedy's assassination 50 years ago Billings was "probably the saddest of the Kennedy 'widows.'" [20] He later said: "I realized that I did not want to work for the president because I felt it would change our relationship. Both men are being held in . It is a historic rural cemetery. 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). (Page 64), Harry Dixon, Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy, John Coleman, Charlotte McDonnell, Jack and Lem, Palm Beach, Christmas 1940, "After his sojourn in Hollywood, Jack returned to the East Coast in time for the Christmas vacation period, during which he liked to spend time with his family and Lem. They were especially fanatical about football. cause of death. 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. [60] In 1965, Jacqueline Kennedy invited Billings to accompany her and her children to England for the unveiling of a memorial to President Kennedy at Runnymede. University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias died of "cocaine intoxication" after ingesting an unusually pure dose of the drug that stopped his heart within minutes, Maryland's chief medical . Kennedy later graduated from Harvard, but the pair wrote letters back and forth, spent weekends together in New York and traveled to Germany in the summer of 1937. "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. Both Jack and Lem were crazy about dogs and soon fell totally in love with little Dunker. [21][22] The next year, Kennedy named him to a board to plan America's participation in the New York World's Fair of 19645. Witch, Harridan, Harpy, and new insults like Karen and Terf. Could he have been the third leg of what was clearly an unconventional marriage? Lem Billings passed away from a heart attack at 65 in 1981. Article. 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. In their own words: 'each death is attributed to a single underlying cause the cause that initiated the series of . I have no doubt the same was true in American upper-crust boarding schools in the single-sex days. 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 . A crew jock, he met Jack at Choate, a boys boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut (it is now co-ed). While at Choate, they formed a club and called themselves "The Muckers". It would be the last Christmas in which the United States would be at peace for more than four years. Lem Billings (left) with John F Kennedy (right) Kennedy and Billings had a sexual relationship including 'oral sex, with Jack always on the receiving end.' Kennedys in Hollywood by Lawrence J. Quirk / The Dark Side Of The Dream [30], The press frequently reported on his presence at Kennedy family events, such as the arrival of the Kennedy children in Washington in February 1961. 'Yesterday was Jack's birthday. Billings, he said, "had a natural jealousy. This is fascinating, Claire. Jack's best friend was Lem and he would want me to remind everyone of that today." 228. 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? 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. I suppose if you dont do the missionary sex position thing you can call yourself straight and for any other position, it is just experimental straight sex? 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. Vidal, the author of a best-selling gay World War II novel, published in 1947 at a time when most queer books were ruled obscene and evidence of homosexual acts could bring a prison term, was unabashedly public about his affairs with men. Len Hauss, a rugged mainstay in Washington's offensive line who started 192 consecutive games at center in a 14-year pro football career that led him to the Super Bowl and five Pro Bowl . However he does quote Billings admission that he may have been in love with Kennedy his whole life. 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.. Jack and Lem, as a reviewer for The New York Daily News put it in 1996, engaged in the kind of sexual experimentation not unknown at all-boys boarding schools.. Billings had once told Bobby that. Featuring interviews with Ben Bradlee, Gore Vidal, Ted Sorenson, friends, family, and many others, award -- winning journalist David Pitts begins the story with the early friendship between the men. Like millions of other young Americans, they faced an uncertain future. 1 leading cause of death among Native Americans in Montana during 2020 and the third-leading cause of death for the general population. 'Dear Mrs. Billings. [11], After working on Kennedy's successful campaign for Congress in 1946, Billings toured seven Latin American countries with Robert F. While web sleuths and conspiracy theorists were looking for the person who killed her . For Jack and Lem, the carefree period of their lives -- their school and college years -- were now behind them. were sexual animals, and its hard for me to believe that a guy like Lem who loved JFK, would stand by and let himself be used and be rebuffed by JFK! 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. "He may have been the reason I never married." This essay was originally published at OutHistory.org on November 22, 2013; it has been updated and re-edited. Jerry Oppenheimer is a New York Times bestselling author who has written two books about the Kennedys. JFK's oldest and best friend was Kirk LeMoyne Billings, known as "Lem." The two became fast friends in prep school and, after graduation, they traveled to Europe together. 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. 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. Lem Billings may have been present for, but just outside the frame, of these pictures. When they arrived at the cemetery, it was already in place to be lowered. Date (s) of Materials: 25 March 1964. She needed Billings to keep the President company while she went horseback riding. 'I borrowed the other half from an inheritance I was about to receive from my grandmother after I graduated from college,' remembered Lem. 'Our story is one of hope': Conjoined twins who made history as first EVER pair survive to separation As Charles Bronson faces a parole hearing on Monday Will Britain's most violent prisoner soon be painting Is this Britain's most despicable man? The two became friends, then roommates. I have one additional comment, probably to be regarded as politically incorrect. 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?'. His name was Lem 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. I am gay and this relationship was more than relieving sexual tension! 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 never really came out of it. Elisa Lam was a 21-year-old woman on an adventure when she died at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles' skid row. 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). He claimed he had no idea who the Kennedys were, but they wanted to meet Williams, and Vidal produced him. With that out of the way, their relationship continued essentially unchanged until JFK's assassination thirty years later.". [28] He sat with the President's family at the Kennedy inauguration and walked not far behind his widow at the Kennedy funeral. Major Character Death; John F Kennedy/ Lem Billings; John F. Kennedy; Lem Billings; Friends to Lovers; Hurt/Comfort; Summary. Details of Lem Billings and JFK's three decade relationship are revealed in 'Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And The Dark Side Of The Dream'. "Because of him," Lem Billings once said of President Kennedy, "I was never lonely" (Page 213), "Jack made a big difference in my life. "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," Bayard said. The murder of Curtis Lemansky marked the beginning of the end for the Strike Team. [59], He escorted Jean Kennedy Smith, sister of the President, to a gala ballet performance in 1966[61] and Ethel Kennedy, the president's sister-in-law, to the 1971 opening of the Kennedy Center. [9] He saw action in North Africa in 194243. [64] Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis included Billings as a guest at a party marking the birthdays of her children Caroline (21st) and John Jr. (18th) in 1978. He claimed he was rebuffed: according to Pitts, it was Jacks decency at that moment that caused the pair to become close, and the moment they decided to become roommates. When JFK was assassinated, he turned his attention to his nephew Bobby Kennedy Jr. ', 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. 12 pdf icon; leading cause of death data, including firearm, homicide, and drug poisoning mortality data, and infant mortality . 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.' 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. (Page 80), Lem examines a damaged ambulance door following the Messerschmitt attack, Sirte, Libya, 1943. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Ken Bruce finishes his 30-year tenure as host of BBC Radio 2, Missing hiker buried under snow forces arm out to wave to helicopter, Hershey's Canada releases HER for SHE bars featuring a trans activist, Insane moment river of rocks falls onto Malibu Canyon in CA, Fleet-footed cop chases an offender riding a scooter, Family of a 10-month-old baby filmed vaping open up. Kennedy. It contained scores of photographs of himself and Jack in Europe, as well as a handwritten narrative. 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. The two grew so close over the following months that Billings was invited to the Kennedy family home in Palm Beach, Florida, for the holiday season and, months later, to their Hyannis Port compound, where he was badly burned in a defective shower and hospitalized for three weeks. Our most accurate accounts of JFKs emotional carelessness are not from Lem, who was loyal to his friend until his death, but from women who later came forward about affairs that now, in the era of #MeToo, sometimes raise harsh questions about whether some of these relationships were abusive. 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. The comments below have been moderated in advance. Billings, for his part, never married and eventually became a marketing executive and worked on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. According to author Christopher Bram (2012), Vidal told the playwright he shouldnt cruise our next president, then repeated the remark to Kennedy. Lem Billings also buffered JFK from the toll that infidelity took on the Kennedy marriage. They were bound together by a love of fun and practical jokes, resentment of Choate, and envy of their higher-achieving elder siblings -- Joe, Jack's brother, and Josh, Lem's brother." "Jack was anxious to reach Lem and to find out how he was doing. [55] Kennedy knew that homosexual behavior on the part of Billings had been revealed by a fellow Choate student during their years there. (Note my reply) I think the interview I have reference to is less than a year ago! The first lady, Jackie, had something of a love-hate relationship with Billings. Bobby Kennedy Jr. gave the eulogy. Definitions: Cause of death vs risk factors. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. "[27] Billings never had a White House pass and said: "Jack and Jackie were so nice about this that I didn't even have to tell them whether I was coming or going. Sexual Abuse at Choate Went On for Decades. Though Billings who was working as a New York City advertising executive at the time of the assassination continued on at his firm for another decade, his life was never the same. [13] He later had several jobs, including selling Coca-Cola dispensers to drugstores and working at a General Shoe store. 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. She reportedly had a love-hate relationship with her husband's best friend. As one source told me, 'Young Bobby replaced Jack in Lem's heart of hearts.'. Yesterday was Jack's birthday. 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Jensen, "Managing the Kennedy Millions," June 12, 1977, Doris Kearns Goodwin, "Fitzgeralds and Kennedys," March 8, 1987, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lem_Billings&oldid=1129296144, This page was last edited on 24 December 2022, at 15:36. 'Haven't heard a word from you,' Jack wrote. ", So frequent a presence was he that Ted Kennedy, more than a decade younger than his brother Jack, said he "was 3 years old before it dawned on me that Lem wasn't one more older brother.". enwiki Lem Billings; Bobby Kennedy Jr. read the eulogy. 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. During that time, he told researchers, "All the kids came over to see me. However, an earlier book by Hollywood writer Lawrence Quirk alleges that Billings was not rebuffed. JFK, or 'Jack' as he was known by his close friends and family, had a gay best friend named Lem Billings, who he met in prep school when Kennedy was 15 and Lem . He may have been the reason I never got married. 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. 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.