To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. "At one point he was sent by Jack to give Jackie the low-down about what she could expect once they were married. 'He seemed a very pleasant fellow,' said Bontecou, a classmate of Bobby's. "Its the story of a really close friendship Find the obituary of Lem Speer (1928 - 2021) from Billings, MT. While the Kennedy family had accepted Billings into their inner circle because of his tight friendship with JFK, Ethel Kennedy's family, the scandalous Republican Skakels of Greenwich, Connecticut, weren't so accepting. 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. Intimate relationship between JFK and his gay friend I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity.]. From 1946 to 1948, Lem attended Harvard Business School. ', Rose Kennedy, however, had a different, more positive view of Billings. He had his own room in the Lem 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. Was it best that he stay and risk the possibility of injuring himself seriously or completely, or was it best for him, as nasty as it was, to ask a Kennedy to leave.'. Their very intimate relationship would last from those school days to Billings even having a room in the Kennedy White House distressing for the first lady to the day of Kennedy's assassination. Sydney Taylor is a writer who focuses on News and Entertainment topics. And Bobby was sort of always unkempt.'. Billings made his desire known while the two were still at school by writing Kennedy a love note on a piece of toilet paper. Jack and Lem by David Pitts | Da Capo Press He possessed a 'high, screechy laugh' and a 'high, nasal whine of a voice' that, according to Quirk, 'instantly tabbed him as gay.'. Lem Billings relaxed on the Kennedys' Palm Beach estate the summer of 1936. Jfk and his longtime roommate Lem Billings. (Billings was gay) 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. 'We had a couple of calls from Jackie - "How's my nephew doing?" Sign up to IrishCentral's newsletter to stay up-to-date with everything Irish! Bobby Kennedy Jr. read the eulogy. ', Jacqueline Kennedy was reportedly unhappuabout her husband and Billings' three decade long relationship. It's when we're crossing back over Chain Bridge that she rouses herself to ask: "Jack, what color is your car?". However, according to Lawrence J. Quirk, author of The Kennedys In Hollywood JFKs reaction to Billings quickly changed. And now that we've crossed into Virginia, the only thing left to figure out is where she might live. Girls in these days are instructed to shoot out a clean, firm thread of inquiry at all times. a commission in the U.S. Arrangements are pending at Billings Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Elkhart. His goal was acceptance at Harvard, which was virtually guaranteed, so many Kennedys before had gone there. 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. Bobby, who would become one of the nation's leading - and often controversial - environmental activists and lawyers, was a member of the falconry group at Millbrook, but his behavior was considered bizarre. Kirk LeMoyne Billings was Jack's very best friend from their time at Choate prep school in 1933 to that fateful day in Dallas 1963. Quirk immediately pegged Billings as gay, noting his 'high, screechy laugh,' and 'high nasal whine of a voice.' Lem Billings andBobby Kennedy Jr became close after JFK's death and allegedly took drugs together. ", But Billings was embarrassed about his effeminate mannerisms - he'd remain publicly closeted for his lifetime. We're due at Bobby and Ethel's that night, but Jack instead cuts across Chain Bridge. 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. ", Bayard learned something else about Jackie during his research. The President never failed to introduce Lem formally to visiting heads of state, dignitaries, and celebrities, but the introduction was never simply a matter of "I would like you to meet my friend, LeMoyne Billings." "He'd introduce me as Congressman Billings or Senator Billings, and even General Billings," Lem would later recall . He noted that everywhere Jack went, Billings was sure to follow, like a puppy dog. He was also a trustee of the Kennedy Library at Harvard. at a General Shoe store, Emerson Drug Company VP, and an advertising executive 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 prestigious Kennedy name practically ruled the institution. . 2. Billings, was a prep school roommate and then In 1965, Mrs. Kennedy invited Billings to accompany her and her children to England for the unveiling of a memorial to Kennedy at Runnymede. No, I wished he was only a pothead. JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century 1917-1956, 6. He is survived by a brother, Dr. F. Tremayne Billings, and a sister, Lucretia Billings Fisher. He once called Billings the "chief f****t at Camelot." " Bayard says of Billings. Somebody who was also not of the Kennedys, but very much wanted to be one of them. 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. By Sydney Taylor Written on Nov 06, 2021. 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 was small and inquisitive, a scion of the Catholic, new-money Kennedys. John F. Kennedy Had a Thing for Scrimshaw - Boston Magazine 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 . Lem Billings - Later Years Billings had a romantic relationship with JFK's nephew, Bobby Kennedy Jr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And The Dark Side Of The Dream ISBN: 0306816237 ISBN13: 9780306816239 Jack and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship by David Pitts See Customer Reviews Select Format Hardcover $22.29 - $25.49 Paperback $12.09 - $19.04 Select Condition Like New -- Very Good Unavailable Good $12.09 Acceptable Unavailable New $19.04 Robert F. Kennedy Jr., David Kenne. To virtually attend a service live Hidden away high up on a bookshelf was a small bronze bust of his father. Remembering JFK's Bond with His Boyhood Best Friend, Who Never Got Over 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. had no problem with his eye sight and saw action in North Africa. Reviews: 95% of readers found this page helpful, Address: 743 Stoltenberg Center, Genovevaville, NJ 59925-3119, Hobby: Surfing, Sailing, Listening to music, Web surfing, Kitesurfing, Geocaching, Backpacking. the two men was friendship. In the spring of 1971, Bobby was sacked once again. In her memoir, published eleven years after the first Kennedy assassination, she wrote that Billings had 'remained Jack's lifelong close friend, confidante, sharer in old memories and new experiences . "They make fun of my voice. Supposedly Billings had written a love note on a piece of toilet paper while the two were still in school. 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. Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. ', By 'We'd have these conversations in our room at night, lying there before we'd fall asleep [Bobby on the top bunk, Fanning on the lower], and he told me that when you go to somebody's house always ask to use the bathroom and check in their medicine cabinet because they always have good pills that you can steal. The more interested they appear to be, the more the boys will understand they don't have to be, in themselves, interesting, which is a relief to both parties. Abruptly, she stands and gives us two quick waves and then, as she jogs to the passenger side, comes briefly ablaze in the headlights. quoted from the book: "Jack made a big difference in my life," When we first happen upon her, her face is angled away, as though she's cocking her ear for a nightingale. Kirk Lemoyne Billings Memorial Page - Home | Facebook 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. Kirk Lemoyne (Lem) Billings. Kirk LeMoyne Billings, a retired advertising executive and a friend of President John F. Kennedy, died Wednesday at his Manhattan apartment. As he acknowledged some years later: 'Soon after my father's death I made a series of choices involving drugs that started me down a road from which I had to struggle to return.'. 'But Lem,' he clearly recalled, 'was around a lot, and we as faculty were told who he was and that he was Bobby's caretaker, as it were, in a loco parentis kind of role. The first lady, Jackie, had something of a love-hate relationship with Billings. "Will we be chauffeuring her fianc, too? He had an older sister, Ruth (Speer) Steele, older brother, Eugene "Bud" Speer, and younger half-brother Lawrence "Larry" Payant. Bobby finally earned his high school diploma in June 1972 at the experimental and alternative Palfrey Street School, in the Boston suburb of Watertown, where he arrived 'wearing dirty, faded jeans, smelling like patchouli oil,' recalled classmate John Cuetera, who became a psychologist.