"And she knew, at some level, that she was marrying another version of her father. "People think I'm a joke," he once acknowledged. And seated close to Kennedy is his shirtless, tanned and oiled best friend forever, his very gay chum, Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings. finances. The only ties he now had to his family while in school was Lem Billings. The enthusiastic pre-adolescent regaled Billings - a New York advertising executive, one of John F. Kennedy's closest confidantes and a closeted homosexual - with stories about his pet collection. Billings made his desire known while the two were still at school by writing Kennedy a love note on a piece of toilet paper. The hearing, lasting less than a half-hour, was held in private. 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. 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. 'And there he was hunting rats out of that pile of dead sheep and cow carcasses. 'People think I'm a joke,' he once acknowledged. As they became close, Billings confided that his relationship with Kennedy was, in fact, sexual, to a point. Jack and Lem met at Choate in 1933. Lem Billings andBobby Kennedy Jr became close after JFK's death and allegedly took drugs together. With so many people looking for a relationship with him as he rose through the political ranks, there was one man who stood out as one of JFK's near-constant companions. ", But Billings was embarrassed about his effeminate mannerisms - he'd remain publicly closeted for his lifetime. All Rights Reserved. "Yesterday was Jack's birthday. Bobby left home with $600, and traveled to California, sometimes riding the rails, and ended up in Berkeley where he bought drugs with money he panhandled. She reportedly had a love-hate relationship with her husband's best friend. JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century 1917-1956, 6. 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. Heide Knop. Biographer Sally Bedell Smith referred to Billings as probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows., Following the assassination of RFK in 1968, Billings transferred his romantic feeling to Kennedys nephew, Bobby Kennedy Jr, to whom Billings would become a fawning surrogate father and fellow drug user.. I took drugs with him. Hidden away high up on a bookshelf was a small bronze bust of his father. The pair had a three-decades long friendship that some have speculated may have also included a romantic affair. He passed away peacefully at home February. Girls in these days are instructed to shoot out a clean, firm thread of inquiry at all times. He was 65 years old. I'm not that kind of boy.". According to biographer James Spada, When Kennedy tired of her, he passed her off to his brother in 1962. And George Terrian, the alcoholic husband of Ethel Kennedy's alcoholic, pill-popping sister, Georgeann, told me in interviews for my book 'The Other Mrs. Kennedy' that, 'Everyone in the family knew Lem was q***r the Kennedys, the Skakels, everyone.'. Quirk had met Billings in the mid-Forties when both were volunteers in Jack Kennedy's first congressional campaign. The Kennedys were a liberal family and one that tolerated a lot of heterosexual promiscuity as well. But the man married to Jackie Kennedy was quietly chided for his compulsive philandering. Kennedy was allegedly on the receiving end of oral sex. 16. I let him down.'. The result is a meditation on the definitions . 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. had no problem with his eye sight and saw action in North Africa. "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," says Bayard, who did a deep dive into the Kennedy archives and biographies while doing researching for the book. 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. Billings, who was a year older than Jack Kennedy, made his desire known while the two were still at Choate in a bizarre love note, penned on a piece of toilet paper that could be disposed of easily to avoid incrimination at a time when homosexuality was illicit. They shared an insatiable intellectual curiosity, a robust sense of humor, and a disdain for petty rules. Millbrook School would be the first of three schools that Bobby would attend before he was able to secure a high school diploma. for inventing '50s fad drink Fizzies for the Emerson Drug Company. Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. Lem also worked for JFK in the West Virginia and Wisconsin primaries He had an older sister, Ruth (Speer) Steele, older brother, Eugene "Bud" Speer, and younger half-brother Lawrence "Larry" Payant. "He also reveals that there was this crucial moment," says Bayard. 'Rob' Bierregaard Jr., who later went on to teach ornithology at the University of North Carolina, recalled, 'Next to the school there was a cow pit where the local dairy farmers threw their dead cows, and it was full of rats. Our website services, content and products are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The Brodes friends included a number of gay men, among them such openly gay politicians as Barney Frank and Gerry Stuuds. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. 121 likes. 'I got the impression he felt an obligation that somebody had to care for Bobby because Mrs. Kennedy was not a hands-on mother at all. She never visited Bobby,' said James Hejduk, who had arrived to teach music at the same time that Bobby began his Millbrook matriculation. 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.". Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. The piece featured here was a gift from Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings, a high school friend and lifelong confidant who helped Kennedy amass his scrimshaw collection, which included more than 30 . But was reportedly upset that her husband spent so much time with him, and that he often stayed overnight at the White House. All in all, there's a certain relief in being able to retreat into the Crestline's back seat. The Funeral Home and/or Cemeterys policy is to NOT reproduce any copyrighted or other proprietary materials without verification from the User that they have the lawful right and/or authority to use. ", "We'd have to drive clear to New York for that. Among the snapshots is one that shows a handsome pre-presidential Kennedy sunning himself, sprawled on a chaise at Patriarch Joe Kennedy's Palm Beach estate. I thought, anything goes with this guy. 'He seemed a very pleasant fellow,' said Bontecou, a classmate of Bobby's. Yesterday was Jack's birthday. ], However, Oppenheimer said, Billings was viewed by many I interviewed for my biography of RFK Jr. as his gay Svengali who guided and literally tried to control every aspect of Bobby Jr.s life from the time he was in his mid-teens., A source had told Oppenheimer, Young Bobby replaced Jack in Lems heart of hearts.. But then I realize she's never seen Jack's car (or Jack himself, maybe) in the naked light of day. John F. Kennedy with Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. I still to this day see him standing there in his black necktie that he wore every day over a blue oxford Brooks Brothers shirt and a beat-up tweed jacket, and wearing the wildest bell-bottoms that were purple with Day-Glo green stripes like he was some soul band guy, and in his funky boots. 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. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. Michelotti-Sawyers Mortuary and Crematory is a locally and independently owned and operated full service funeral home and crematory. See additional information. Jack Johns. I know he had all that baggage with his father, but being in that pit that was the kind of thing he would do. dachshund they named Dunker but had to give him up because of Jack's allergies. One of those he told was his roommate Jamie Fanning. I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity. Reprinted by permission. Featuring interviews with Ben Bradlee, Gore Vidal, Ted Sorenson, friends, family, and many others . She has dabbed herself with Chateau Krigler 12 (I consider telling her it's my mother's favorite), and there is the complicating counter-aroma of Pall Malls, and somewhere at the back, simple bovine perspiration. 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. John F. Kennedy, whose 100th birthday is being celebrated this year with a Kennedy Centennial postage stamp, TV memorials, a slew of books, and much media coverage, was revered as the 35th president of the United States. The funeral will be held in Pittsburgh. Inside JFKs Intimate Relationship With Gay Best Friend Who Had His Own Room In The White House, Britney Spears Blames Her Mom For Conservatorship Inside Lynne Spearss Complicated Role In Singers Life, Details About Kristen Stewarts Fiance Dylan Meyers & Their Adorably Casual Proposal, The Horniest Animal In The World Is Not What You Think It Is, I'd Rather Get Pregnant With My Gay Best Friend Than My Husband, Teacher Wants Student Removed From His Class Because The Kid's Parents Don't Approve Of His Marriage, Jeffrey Epstein's Relationship With Princess Diana Explored In New Book. 'But we never saw Ethel. It's the weekend before St. Patrick's Day, 1952, and there's still a late-winter nip in the Virginia air, but Jack always keeps the top down because, by age thirty-four, he knows how dashing his hair looks in high wind. In the summer of 1934, future United States president John F Kennedy was in his junior year at the prestigious Choate School in Connecticut. In his second year at Millbrook, Bobby began boasting that he was doing certain drugs intravenously - shooting up, like any street junkie. It was Bobby Kennedy Jr. who gave the eulogy. By Adam Salandra. What if Jacqueline Bouvier had chosen differently? 'Yesterday was Jack's birthday. That kind of thing,' recalled the widow of one of the school's headmasters while Bobby was in attendance. A unique and lasting tribute for a . RELATED:Britney Spears Blames Her Mom For Conservatorship Inside Lynne Spearss Complicated Role In Singers Life, Quirk explained this '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. The martyred widow had taken out her anger and frustration on an easy and available target - her third-born, her late husband's namesake, Bobby Jr., who was a behavior problem even before his father's tragic death. This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. 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 . Robert F. Kennedy Jr., David Kenne. University until Kennedy withdrew for medical reasons. He was kind of sinister. But the one thing that struck me even at that tender age was that I felt Lem was just obsessed with Bobby. I'm not that kind of boy.. The Brodes didn't mind that Billings was gay and had such a close relationship with Bobby. By the middle of Bobby's second year at Millbrook, around January 1970, he was placed on a secret short list of students considered too difficult to remain enrolled. As one source told me, 'Young Bobby replaced Jack in Lem's heart of hearts.'. Photo / Getty Images. 11:10 EDT 13 Oct 2015 'We would get a telephone call from that funny old nurse, who sounded like an old-time nanny, and she would say, "It's President Kennedy's birthday and Bobby needs to go to Mass and observe that," and my husband would have to take him,' recalled his widow. 'Ethel never had any contact about her son. But, the Skakels had previously been homophobic to Billings. Credit: JFK Presidential Library and Museum. She told him, 'I don't really care if you have a girl sleep here, but I want it to be the same person all the time because I want my kids to grow to understating that love is good with one person.'. 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. F. 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. ', 'It was that kind of talk, more bragging, but I believed him. John F. Kennedy, whose 100th birthday is being celebrated this year with a Kennedy Centennial postage stamp, TV memorials, a slew of books, and much media coverage, was revered as the 35th president of the United States. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. By easy degrees, she turns around and bestows on me a fuller version of that first smile. After Kennedys election Billings would frequently be an overnight guest, which supposedly upset the First Lady, Jackie Kennedy. Billings and Kennedy took Lem Billings. His goal was acceptance at Harvard, which was virtually guaranteed, so many Kennedys before had gone there. Meadowrockalpacas is a website that writes about many topics of interest to you, a blog that shares knowledge and insights useful to everyone in many fields. Getty Images Billings, for his part, never married and eventually became a marketing executive and worked on the John F. Kennedy Center for the. (See below for an exclusive excerpt.).

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