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 thought of his life as being over after Jack died," the younger Bobby Kennedy told Pitts for his book. Elisa Lam's Cause of Death & Autopsy: Cecil Hotel Mystery - Heavy.com 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. John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings, right, who was a classmate from the Choate School and Princeton University, outside a drugstore, ca. Their mothers just married the same man. Billings was so much a part of the extended Kennedy clan that he was regularly included in family gatherings, and Attorney General Robert Bobby Kennedy named his son Michael LeMoyne Kennedy. 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. 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. ", Matriarch Rose Kennedy wrote in her biography that Billings was "one of 'Jack's surprises,' " and soon found a place for himself: "He has really been part of 'our family' since that first time he showed up at our house. 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. 7 Gay Presidential Rumors You Won't Believe (But Maybe Should) But even before then, Billings was a Kennedy fixture. [6][7], In 1941, Billings failed medical tests required by the military. Prince Andrew has 'offered to manage prestigious Royal estates including Balmoral but King Charles has told PLATELL'S PEOPLE: Yes, Madonna toyboys are fun but not if you value your dignity. [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. President John F. Kennedy has become infamous for his vivid, and some might say almost compulsive, heterosexual affairs. To begin with, why would JFK give him a private room at the white house, to come and go at his leisure? 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. 0 references. Wiggins was serving a 28 years . Gore Vidal, the writer who claimed he viewed homosexuality as normal as heterosexuality, disparaged the JFK-Billings relationship during the Kennedy administration. "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. Vidal thought Jacqueline Kennedy thought Billings "was kind of a nothing but Jack needed him and she was practical. Mid-1930s. Lem Billings - Later Years John Fitzgerald Kennedy & Lem Billings: elisa_rolle - LiveJournal To order a copy, click here. (Page 276). 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. 'Dear Mrs. Billings. He had a very independent mind. The . In a third, the President is walking on the beach with the late Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, as they grieved the death of their premature son Patrick. Lem (Kenny Johnson) refuses to live the rest of his life as a fugitive in Mexico.S5E11 - Postpartum (FX The Shield)I DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO THE VIDEO CLIPS. He was by all accounts JFK's best friend . Lem Billings may have been present for, but just outside the frame, of these pictures. 'What the hell have you been doing? "[Billings] was a witness to so much of what was going on. [11], After working on Kennedy's successful campaign for Congress in 1946, Billings toured seven Latin American countries with Robert F. 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. His father was a prominent physician and a graduate of the U.S. Because of him, I was never lonely. 0 references. "He was in a very deep depression; sometimes didn't want to live," Pitts told the New Haven Register in 2007. . As they became close, Billings confided that his relationship with Kennedy was, in fact, sexual, to a point. As Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee recalled much later, "I suppose it's known that Lem was gay.. Billings once admitted that he made a pass at Jack early on. An autopsy report says Billings' cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. "[25]:244 Sometimes he stayed for longer periods. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. According to author Christopher Bram (2012), Vidal told the playwright he shouldnt cruise our next president, then repeated the remark to Kennedy. [24], Billings visited the White House for most weekends during the Kennedy Administration. Causes of death - Our World in Data Billings took leave from his business career to work on Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign. Quirk immediately pegged Billings as gay, noting his 'high, screechy laugh,' and 'high nasal whine of a voice.' "Because of him," Lem Billings once said of President Kennedy, "I was never lonely" John F. Kennedy bi-sexual or gay? [12], From 1946 to 1948, Billings attended Harvard Business School and earned an MBA. Author Louis Bayard focuses much of his upcoming novel Jackie & Me on the relationship between Billings and Kennedy, too. ", Still, he was well aware of his proximity to history. Could he have been the third leg of what was clearly an unconventional marriage? Lem Billings also buffered JFK from the toll that infidelity took on the Kennedy marriage. Deadline reported in 2018 that it was to be the basis for a forthcoming boipic as well. You can follow her on Twitter. 50 Lemoyne Billings Premium High Res Photos - Getty Images He sent one letter to Lem's mother addressed to the American Field Service PO Box in New York. Advocate Contributors November 22 2013 4:00 AM EST In photos. (Page 100). "[27] Arthur Schlesinger thought Billings "used to glare at me when we occasionally encountered each other in the company of JFK, and for a time I took this rather personally. Why should a historian care about Kennedys sex life at all? Jerry Oppenheimer is a New York Times bestselling author who has written two books about the Kennedys. But above all, Bobby was very important to Lem personally. Mom who lost both sons to fentanyl blasts laughing Biden, Two Russian tanks annihilated with bombs by Ukrainian armed forces, Isabel Oakeshott receives 'menacing' message from Matt Hancock, Pavement where disabled woman gestured at cyclist before fatal crash, Pro-Ukrainian drone lands on Russian spy planes exposing location, 'Buster is next!' And all the while, Lem Billings was there: waiting, serving, comforting and helping the Kennedy family adjust to the public glare. Of course, he had always loved the Cape and was completely happy there.'" In 1929, Billy's brother, the reclusive, never married Charles Lemp had moved back into the Lemp Mansion with his dog. JFK's Queer White House - Public Seminar Claire Potteris professor of history at The New School, and Executive Editor of Public Seminar. Lem's raison d'tre was Jack Kennedy. The 51-year-old daughter of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died Sept. 16 while working out at her Washington, D.C., gym. Although Alford refused, she did not always have the self-confidence to say no: earlier, she had fellated a staff member in Jacks presence. 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. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to receive selections from new issues of Public Seminar. Claire Potter is professor of history at The New School, and Executive Editor of Public Seminar. 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. Here is a look at their friendship. JFK Tapes - Boston & New York (Lem Billings) - YouTube Description: In this interview, Billings discusses John F. Kennedy's time at Choate, his family life, and their first trip to Europe together, among other issues. Bobby Kennedy Jr. gave the eulogy. The first time Kirk Lemoyne 'Lem' Billings was . Jack, Lem, and Caroline enjoying the water, Hyannis Port, 1963. While JFK is legendarily known as a master womanizer who frequently cheated on his first lady, his curious three-decades long intimate friendship with Billings suggests more than a simple bromance. Stats of the State of Montana - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [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. "[53] Though newspapers often mentioned Billings' attendance at major social events, they identified him either as the escort of a member of the Kennedy family or included him in a list of Kennedy friends. The bond between Billings and John F. Kennedy continues to be of interest to many, with a new wave of attention cresting on social media apps like TikTok, where users have pored back over candid photos of the young men together. The pair matriculated at Princeton together in the fall of 1935, although Jack had to withdraw for health reasons, probably early signs of the Addisons disease that would plague him the rest of his life. A Catholic couple, the Kennedys hoped for more children: Jack had been one of nine, while Bobby and Ethel Kennedy had eleven.