The president was famously believed to have affairs during their marriage. Billings, for his part, never married and eventually became a marketing executive and worked on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. "[25]:244 Sometimes he stayed for longer periods. She had to submit questions in advance. "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. "Because of him, I was never lonely," Billings said once. Later Years. The Cold War was still raging, and there was fear Russian agents might use the friendship against Kennedy. Vidal thought Jacqueline Kennedy thought Billings "was kind of a nothing but Jack needed him and she was practical. ', 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. When Jack discovered that Billings was gay once declining an amorous overture from Billings the friendship is thought to have gone on unharmed. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings (April 15, 1916 - May 28, 1981) was a close friend of the Kennedy family, who had his own room at the White House during the Kennedy presidency. Pitts' 2007 book helped spur renewed interest in the friendship between President Kennedy and Billings. "Because of him," Lem Billings once said of President Kennedy, "I was never lonely" I'm not that kind of boy.' For example, in Once Upon a Secret (2012), former White House intern Mimi Alford describes a prolonged affair she had with Kennedy, beginning in the summer of 1962 when she was 19 and ending shortly before his assassination on November 22, 1963. He sent one letter to Lem's mother addressed to the American Field Service PO Box in New York. It impressed . JFKs sex life, and his attachments to men, also needs to be better understood for what it reveals about his inner life, and for a moment in United States political history when sex itself was undergoing seismic changes. 64, No. [23] He represented the President when the alumni association unveiled Kennedy's portrait at Choate in May 1963. Article. Date (s) of Materials: 25 March 1964. 73 Photos of Naturally Naked Men by Terry Hastings, 23 Masturbation Tips for People With Vaginas, 22 Terrifying Sexual Fantasies That Must Be Talked About, 30 Kinky Terms Every Gay Man Needs To Know, 10 Sex Toys for All Genders and How to Use Them, Alternative Orgasms: 20 New Ways to Hit the Spot, LGBTQ+ Rights Lawyer Shannon Minter's Home Hit by Tornado, 'First Deep Breath' Is a Moving Story of a Black Family & Queerness, Karine Jean-Pierre on Tennessee Anti-Drag Law: Unacceptable & Unfortunate, Texas GOP May Censure Congressman Over Support for Marriage Equality, 12 LGBTQ+ Films and TV Shows to Watch in March, The Dildo Nazi: Sex Toy-Selling White Supremacist Umasked, Lesbian Gov. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. Billings had once told Bobby that. It is important to understand what is meant by the cause of death and the risk factor associated with a premature death:. Lem felt that the physical regimen at the Kennedy vacation homes was even more exacting than that at Choate. [31] He accompanied the President to church,[32] launched a kite for the President's daughter Caroline,[33] and delivered pet hamsters to the Kennedy children. 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. Billings as a teenager was 6' 2", weighed 175 pounds, and was the strongest member of the Choate crew. (Page 35), Jack and Lem in a Palm Beach photo booth just before their European tour, 1937, "Jack and Lem's summer in Europe began on July 1, 1937. 0 references. [55] Kennedy knew that homosexual behavior on the part of Billings had been revealed by a fellow Choate student during their years there. Billings, Lem (Kirk LeMoyne), 1916-1981. A crew jock, he met Jack at Choate, a boys' boarding school, in Wallingford, Connecticut (it is now co-ed). [9] He saw action in North Africa in 194243. He reportedly never entertained or enjoyed social outings. John F. Kennedy (right) and Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings sit in a wicker chair outside the Kennedy family home in Palm Beach. Kennedy. To order a copy, click here. 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. Williams, a handsome gay southerner, had already written seven hit plays. In "Jack and Lem", author David Pitts looks at the relationship between the late president and Kirk LeMoyne Billings or "Lem". "[38] Another said: "Members of the president's staff thought of him as a 'handy old piece of furniture. 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. "He never really came out of it. As Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee recalled much later, "I suppose it's known that Lem was gay.. JAMIE RICHARDSON: John F. Kennedy had no shortage of people who considered themselves friends of the 35th president. He might have been the reason I never got married. He remained in the closet until his death in 1981 at the age of 65, according to Pitts. 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. Elisa Lam was a 21-year-old woman on an adventure when she died at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles' skid row. It was Bobby Kennedy Jr. who gave the eulogy. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Both boys kept diaries on the trip, although Lem's was more of a scrapbook. Lem Billings Is JFK's 'Go-Between' During Courtship with Jackie as Imagined in New Novel PEOPLE has an exclusive first look at Louis Bayard's upcoming Jackie & Me By Sam Gillette Published on. Both Jack and Lem were crazy about dogs and soon fell totally in love with little Dunker. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. ', White House visitor: Billings often spent the night at the White House, which upset Jackie Kennedy. For Jack and Lem, the carefree period of their lives -- their school and college years -- were now behind them. 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. "Because of him, I was never lonely. Criticisms from others in the Kennedy orbit insinuate that Jack took advantage of Lems love for him without reciprocating. This was at the end of their final presidential debate at Hofstra University in New York in October, 2008. 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. 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. Another shows older daughter Caroline, who became the American Ambassador to Japan under Barack Obama, learning to ride her pony. Anyone who wants to know more about JFKs actual sex life can email me at tim.a.nicholson@gmail.com Here is my sons grandfather with JFK in Dec 1963. And for Lem and Mark Chesmore, there's nothing more they enjoy doing than participating in their chosen sport of boxing. I have also studied the forensics of the assassination for 21 years. A telephone conversation between President Kennedy and Lem Billings. But this may, in fact, just be gossip. Soon I discovered that he glared with equal suspicion at anyone whose friendship with JFK postdated his own. The . it would not surprise me knowing how most of the Kennedys (including ole Joe!) President John F. Kennedy has become infamous for his vivid, and some might say almost compulsive, heterosexual affairs. Now thats very exciting! said Kennedy with a grin.. 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. One of their friends thought "that Jackie was trying to close Lem out. "He was in a very deep depression; sometimes didn't want to live," Pitts told the New Haven Register in 2007. Release of Secret JFK Assassination Records Delayed by Biden, Angering Some of the Kennedys. Lem Billings died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack on May 28, 1981, at the age of 65. When Jack reached home, the two friends greeted each other like there was no tomorrow." In photos and excerpts from David Pitts's book Jack & Lem, we remember President John F. Kennedy through the lens of his lifelong friendship with Lem Billings. William Lemp III died an untimely death of a heart attack at the age of 42. 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. In addition, gay and lesbian people often have reasons for not coming out, or not seeking the liberation of living in queer communities, lives that are worth exploring for what we might learn about queer milieus that do not fit a conventional liberationist narrative. His father was a prominent physician and a graduate of the U.S. It remains the worst such failure in the history of advertising agencies. 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. 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. John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings, right, who was a classmate from the Choate School and Princeton University, outside a drugstore, ca. enwiki Lem Billings; [16], On September 12, 1953, Billings was an usher at the wedding of Kennedy and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier.