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. Later Years. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. What happened when Jackie Kennedy and Queen Elizabeth II met? 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. It was Bobby Kennedy Jr. who gave the eulogy. 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. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. Quirk had met Billings in the mid-Forties when both were volunteers in Jack Kennedy's first congressional campaign. Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want to remind everyone of that today. In 1941, Jack and Lem both tried out for the military but were both declined, A wider smile than I would have guessed possible. But we speed past all those destinations before steering up Old Dominion Drive. A startled Kennedy responded to the note by saying, Please don't write to me on toilet paper anymore. * Originally published in June 2017, updated in 2022. the two men was friendship. His goal was acceptance at Harvard, which was virtually guaranteed, so many Kennedys before had gone there. Claudette informed Vic that she was told that Lem's lack of a department funeral and motorcade would prevent news headlines about Lem's "dirty dealings". I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity.]. 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. I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another. "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. Beyond love, Jackie & Me is also about how decisions can define us. 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. For Billings, a year older than the future president, it was love at first sight and from the instant they met Billings was sexually attracted to the handsome scion of America's so-called royal family. Jack and Lem met at Choate in 1933. I understand he's not worth it.". I thought, anything goes with this guy. The biographer Sally Bedell Smith, referred to Billings in one of her books as 'probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows.'. The Kennedys were a liberal family and one that tolerated a lot of heterosexual promiscuity as well., In her memoir, Times To Remember, published eleven years after JFKs assassination in Dallas in 1963, matriarch Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy wrote that Billings had remained Jack's lifelong close friend, confidant, sharer in old memories and new experiencesHe has really been part of 'our family' since that first time he showed up at our house as one of 'Jack's surprises., Lem Billings and John F. Kennedy pictured at the Kennedy familys Palm Beach estate. 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. Reprinted by permission. Millbrook School would be the first of three schools that Bobby would attend before he was able to secure a high school diploma. 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. But I'm stuck with the Kennedys emotionally, and I will be to the end of my life.". He had an older sister, Ruth (Speer) Steele, older brother, Eugene "Bud" Speer, and younger half-brother Lawrence "Larry" Payant. Billings had a romantic relationship with JFK's nephew, Bobby Kennedy Jr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And The Dark Side Of The Dream However, the relationship between All Rights Reserved. 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. Kirk LeMoyne Billings and John F. Kennedy. President Kennedy with his wife, Jacqueline, and Texas governor John Connally with his wife, Nellie, in the presidential limousine, minutes before the assassination. Arrangements are pending at Billings Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Elkhart. "Oh, yes?" President Kennedy was a completely liberated man when he was with Lem.'. It was Bobby Kennedy Jr. who gave the eulogy. Forests of redbud and magnolia are thickening around us, and somehow they're all in on the secret, and Kay Starr sings "Wheel of Fortune" on the radio, and, during the second chorus, I sneeze, and Jack says, "Perfectly in tune, Lem," and then the song is over, and we're pulling up in front of . Their foresight led to the development of a funeral home dedicated to providing the best quality service possible to families at their . 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. Brode had liberal views, didn't mind that Bobby smoked pot with Lem Billings in Bobby's room. I shoot him a look, and he saysimagine the offhandednessthat we have an additional passenger. As they became close, Billings confided that his relationship with Kennedy was, in fact, sexual, to a point. One of those he told was his roommate Jamie Fanning. Jackie was reportedly upset that her husband spent so much time with Billings and that he often spent the night at the White House. As George Terrien, Ethel's brother-in-law declared, 'Everyone knew Lem was queer - the Kennedys, the Skakels, everyone.'. But Bayard says that the reality of their marriage including years of reporting about Jack's infidelities gave him a "degree of empathy" for Jackie when approaching her character in the novel. The Brodes friends included a number of gay men, among them such openly gay politicians as Barney Frank and Gerry Stuuds. After Kennedys election Billings would frequently be an overnight guest, which supposedly upset the First Lady, Jackie Kennedy. 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? He was by all accounts JFK's best. Of the Kennedys, only Bobby's uncle Ted had shown up at Millbrook to see how his nephew was doing. Adapted from New York Times bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer's explosive new book, Mom who lost both sons to fentanyl blasts laughing Biden, Missing hiker buried under snow forces arm out to wave to helicopter, Pavement where disabled woman gestured at cyclist before fatal crash, Isabel Oakeshott receives 'menacing' message from Matt Hancock, Pro-Ukrainian drone lands on Russian spy planes exposing location, 'Buster is next!' JFK's Best Friend Lem: Transcript. Bobby was an edgy, edgy guy. Extent: 82 digital pages. Lem was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1916 But, the Skakels had previously been homophobic to Billings. "The result is this book, which looks at Jackie before she was Jackie the Jackie that we all think we know. , updated A different side of JFK: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings met atChoate Rosemary Hall and became lifelong friends. 'He almost did things to shock you on purposeIt was a pretty dark, grim time; he was miserable and he was angry. He was 65 years old. Make a life-giving gesture. "And we could have made a very different choice. "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. ', Another classmate, Brian Carroll, remembered 'this odd character' Billings, who was always on campus fawning over Bobby: '"Bobby, are you eating? Mr. Billings was active in all of John Kennedy's campaigns as well as those of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Billings Funeral Home. Were I to search his facehis souldown to the most granular level, I would find no clue, for there is perhaps none to find. And now that we've crossed into Virginia, the only thing left to figure out is where she might live. As Billings' biographer David Pitts told me, 'Once JFK decided that Billings was his best friend like it or leave, everybody in the family sort of fell in line with that. In May 1981, as Bobby was about to marry his first wife, Emily Black, 65-year-old Lem Billings suddenly died of a heat attack in his sleep, Shortly before he went to bed he got drunk, started to cry and told a friend, 'I made a terrible mistake. ', Roommates: JFK and Billings (right) roomed atChoate and again atPrinceton (pictured mid-1930s outside a drugstore with roommate Ralph Horton Jr), JFK's sisterEunice Kennedy Shriver said his relationship with Billingswas a 'complete liberation of the spirit' for Jack (Pictured on their Christmas card with fellow Princeton roommateRalph Horton Jr), While her husband had his qualms about Billings and couldn't stand to have him around, the matriarch Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, had a different take. Tglich werden Tausende neue hochwertige Bilder hinzugefgt. Standing next to Jack, or lying close beside him in a lawn chaise at the Kennedy oceanfront estate in Palm Beach, as one old photograph showed, Billings appeared to dwarf his chum. 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 both kept diaries documenting, in words and pictures, their adventures, mishaps, and observations along the way. I'm not that kind of boy.. 'Bobby wasn't just a pothead. Young Bobby replaced Jack in Lem's heart of hearts, one source told Oppenheimer, who is the author of the book Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And The Dark Side Of The Dream. He's taken over."'. Secret Service agents William Greer (driving) and Roy Kellerman are in the front seats. he's stoned." As Fanning recalled years later, 'The room was filthy and Bobby let the bird, which perched on the bust of his father, s**t all over the place, including all down that bust of his dead father. From 1946 to 1948, Lem attended Harvard Business School. Billings and Kennedy took 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. Beyond the senator, young Bobby's aunt Jackie had inquired about his welfare but never visited.'. Lem Billings andBobby Kennedy Jr became close after JFK's death and allegedly took drugs together. He also is responsible A funny photo of Senator John McCain catching himself after he nearly left the stage in the wrong direction after shaking hands with Senator Barack Obama. A planetarium-like darkness, with the two of them swimming like moons. As Billings' biographer David Pitts told me, "Once JFK decided that Billings was his best friend - like it or leave, everybody in the family sort of fell in line with that. Bayard explores the beginnings of the romance between the future Mrs. Kennedy, then the inquiring photographer for the Washington Times-Herald, and young Congressman John F. Kennedy, with Jack's best friend, Lem Billings, serving as a "go-between" for the lovers in 1950s Washington, D.C. Just a week after his father's funeral, at his brother David's thirteenth birthday party at a grim Hickory Hill, Bobby had spiked everyone's milk with a laxative. I don't know whether she wrote to Bobby, but she certainly didn't telephone or visit him. He attended one of the parents' weekends, but was never seen on campus again. When a Harvard classmate asked Bobby whether such talk had any reality, whether he seriously thought he could win a presidential election and be the second Kennedy to rule the country, Bobby's response was: 'I feel that is my destiny.'.