Lem Billings died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack on May 28, 1981, at the age of 65. Smith, 433-4; see also: Smith, 113: "The only counterbalance to the [Kennedy] family's philistinism had been Lem Billings, whose passion for art and antiques had begun with his Princeton theses on Tintoretto, a precociously sophisticated study. A queer perspective on JFK is not readily visible in official histories that feature iconic images and stories about one of the first administrations to offer the public ongoing access to the White Houses backstage. As a younger man, he also served as something of a "go-between" for a young Jack Kennedy and the woman who would become Kennedy's wife, Jackie Bouvier, in 1950s Washington, D.C. Lem's raison d'tre was Jack Kennedy. Pamela Long Wiggins, who was convicted of accessory to murder after the fact in connection with the Billings murders, died Thursday in state prison. [60] In 1965, Jacqueline Kennedy invited Billings to accompany her and her children to England for the unveiling of a memorial to President Kennedy at Runnymede. Have you heard from him?' John F. Kennedy Had A Sexual Relationship With His Gay Best Friend The importance of other causes of death such as communicable diseases, maternal, neonatal and nutritional causes, and noncommunicable diseases like cancer and heart disease varied most between different countries. He didn't want to share his friendship with Jack. Advocate Contributors November 22 2013 4:00 AM EST In photos. [66], In 1987, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin described how Billings structured her interviews with him. Allegheny Cemetery - Wikipedia However he does quote Billings admission that he may have been in love with Kennedy his whole life. [17] In 1956 he was an usher at the wedding of Kennedy's sister Jean to Stephen Edward Smith. The murder of Curtis Lemansky marked the beginning of the end for the Strike Team. While web sleuths and conspiracy theorists were looking for the person who killed her . (Page 95), Jack and Lem on leave, Palm Beach, 1944"It's not clear whether Lem wanted to join the navy and see combat because Jack had, or because he wanted it for himself. I have one additional comment, probably to be regarded as politically incorrect. 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. Lem Billings is a well known Celebrity. [10] In 1944 he received a commission in the U.S. "[52] One historian wrote that after the 1963 assassination Billings was: "probably the saddest of the Kennedy 'widows'. [36] When the Kennedys spent the weekend at Glen Ora, their Virginia estate, Jacqueline Kennedy invited Billings to join them more often than the President did. Once, Alford remembered, Kennedy suggested that she would be doing him a favor if she agreed to help his younger brother, Ted, a newly elected Senator, with his own tensions, while the President watched from across the pool. 1934: Young JFK in hospital The young JFK, messing around with Lem Billings during their Choate years In the summer of 1934, future United States president John F Kennedy was in his junior year at the prestigious Choate School in Connecticut. But above all, Bobby was very important to Lem personally. The two grew so close over the following months that Billings was invited to the Kennedy family home in Palm Beach, Florida, for the holiday season and, months later, to their Hyannis Port compound, where he was badly burned in a defective shower and hospitalized for three weeks. After saying in a quiet voice, "He put up quite a fight. Claire Potter is professor of history at The New School, and Executive Editor of Public Seminar. When JFK was assassinated, he turned his attention to his nephew Bobby Kennedy Jr. [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. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. JFK's gay widow - Dallas Voice 7 Gay Presidential Rumors You Won't Believe (But Maybe Should) "Because of him," Lem Billings once said of President Kennedy, "I was never lonely" Soon I discovered that he glared with equal suspicion at anyone whose friendship with JFK postdated his own. Lem profited from the friendship--he was an official member of the Kennedy clan, he went to fancy White House parties and even had his own friendship at the presidential mansion at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 12 pdf icon; leading cause of death data, including firearm, homicide, and drug poisoning mortality data, and infant mortality . ', 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. [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. 'Yesterday was Jack's birthday. 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. Although JFK embarked on affairs with women as a very young man, affairs that continued into his married life, Billings remained focused on an erotic life with men and never had a life partner. One reason is that, in retrospect, the Kennedy presidency provides a transition from the years of what historian David K. Johnson calls the lavender scare and the unbuttoned, experimental 1960s that launched the gay rights movement. [34] He joined the President's entourage for his tours of Europe in both 1961 and 1963. Billings was a longtime Kennedy family friend, working to preserve the slain president's legacy even after death. Billings served with Sargent Shriver as a trustee for the Kennedy family trusts. I mean, I could have had a wife, and family, but what the hell -- do you think I would have had a better life having been Jack Kennedy's best friend, having been with him during so many moments of his presidency, having had my own room at the White House, having had the best friend anybody ever had, or having been married and settled down and living somewhere." Kara Kennedy's Heart May Have Taken 'Direct Hit' by Cancer Cure "Because of him, I was never lonely," Billings said once. "Early on in their friendship, Lem sent Jack such a note and Jack replied in their usual jocular way, adding in parentheses, 'Please don't write to me on toilet paper any more. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he sometimes acted as escort for several of the Kennedy women. A crew jock, he met Jack at Choate, a boys' boarding school, in Wallingford, Connecticut (it is now co-ed). John F. Kennedy's best friend for three decades was a gay man, according to a new book titled, "Jack and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings.The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship;" the book documents the relationship between the two men from its beginnings at a New England prep school in 1933 until the gunfire in Dallas in 1963. Billings was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 15, 1916, the third child of Frederic Tremaine Billings (18731933) and Romaine LeMoyne (18821970). 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. The Shield - Lem's death [5x11] - YouTube 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. ", Billings' family could chafe at his adoration: "My uncle was not someone you could have a reasonable conversation with about what was going on with the Kennedys," his nephew said in Princeton's alumni magazine. [4], Some historians believe that Billings expressed his sexual interest in Kennedy in writing in 1934 and that Kennedy rebuffed his advances. Sometimes Jack bitched Lem out one letter saying, "Of all the cheap shit I have. "[44], Many testify to Billings' wit and ability to help the President relax. Kirk Lem Lemoyne Billings (15 Apr 1916 - 28 May 1981) 0 references . And did he personally lend a hand from time to time? I really got to know them well. In many ways, Kennedy was also enjoying the kind of sex life that would later characterize the gay mens party of the 1970s. 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. The Once and Future Kennedys - The Washington Post Witch, Harridan, Harpy, and new insults like Karen and Terf. I was pleased to note that things picked up after your arrival,' referring to Montgomery's battle with Rommel at El Alamein. It contained scores of photographs of himself and Jack in Europe, as well as a handwritten narrative. Plastic surgeon reveals five cosmetic procedures she would NEVER get - from dangerous Brazilian butt lifts BEL MOONEY:Why does caring for my dad take over my life? enwiki Lem Billings; In their own words: 'each death is attributed to a single underlying cause the cause that initiated the series of . For Billings' funeral, some of the younger Kennedys served as pallbearers (as Billings himself had done for some of their own, like the slain Sen. Robert F. Kennedy). Perhaps, given his deep personal knowledge of the President and his friendship with the First Lady, he even gave directions as the photographer snapped the candid shots that would charm both the nation and historians. Lem Billings (left) with John F Kennedy (right) Kennedy and Billings had a sexual relationship including 'oral sex, with Jack always on the receiving end.' Kennedys in Hollywood by Lawrence J. Quirk / The Dark Side Of The Dream