'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. From all accounts, they became fast friends, drawn to each other by their "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. "Can't beat a good Irish pub" - David Beckham celebrates son's birthday in Dublin, UPDATE: Alex Murdaugh sentenced to life in prison for murdering wife and son, WATCH: Irish bishop's funeral held in Los Angeles today, Brian Donnelly, Irish American visa hero, has died, Sunak's Northern Ireland deal is a solid one, Irish bishops memorial services underway in LA as murder investigation continues, Ireland named one of the safest places to travel in Europe. 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 . 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. dachshund they named Dunker but had to give him up because of Jack's allergies. That kind of thing,' recalled the widow of one of the school's headmasters while Bobby was in attendance. Did OJ Simpson's Son Jason Kill Nicole Brown & Ron Goldman? (In September, Jack joined Trio arrested during crackdown fall foul of national security law. The first time Kirk Lemoyne 'Lem' Billings was introduced to Bobby Kennedy Jr. the two spent several hours alone in the boy's room at fabled Hickory Hill, Robert and Ethel Kennedy's historic, sprawling estate, in bucolic McLean, Virginia. I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another.'. "Its the story of a really close friendship Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. Make a life-giving gesture. From 1946 to 1948, Lem attended Harvard Business School. ', About the odd KennedyBillings relationship, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, one of JFK's five sisters, once remarked: 'It's hard to describe it as just friendship; it was a complete liberation of the spirit. 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. * Originally published in June 2017, updated in 2022. 7:44 PM. The first lady, Jackie, had something of a love-hate relationship with Billings. He had an older sister, Ruth (Speer) Steele, older brother, Eugene "Bud" Speer, and younger half-brother Lawrence "Larry" Payant. Their lifelong relationship caused some of the presidents advisers to fear Russian agents may use the information as blackmail. In school JFK and Lem were close. Lem's father died in 1933 placing additional strain on the family's And seated close to Kennedy is his shirtless, tanned and oiled best friend forever, his very gay chum, Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings. 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. Arrangements are pending at Billings Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Elkhart. And Bobby was sort of always unkempt.'. While JFK is legendarily known as a master womanizer who frequently cheated on his first lady, his curious three-decades long intimate friendship with Billings suggests more than a simple bromance. 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. By 'Ethel never had any contact about her son. Nothing for it, then, but to watch Miss Bouvier's headunder the weight of her impending introduction to the Kennedy clanloll ever so gradually to the right. Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want to remind everyone of that today. Advocate Contributors November 22 2013 4:00 AM EST In photos. 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. He was born in Pittsburgh and graduated from Princeton. Lem Billings. Ethel's alcoholic, philandering brother, George Skakel Jr., actually booted Billings in the a** at the church, knocking him into the aisle. 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The pair had a three-decades long friendship that some have speculated may have also included a romantic affair. 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. the most part, commented to a White House usher, "He (Lem) has been a house Lem Billings andBobby Kennedy Jr became close after JFK's death and allegedly took drugs together. Irked, Joe Kennedy would sneeringly ask his wife, Rose, 'Do we have to have that queer around all summer? While Billings' missive is long gone, a startled Kennedy responded, 'Please don't write to me on toilet paper anymore. It was all quite bizarre. And it's a kind of interesting love triangle between these three fascinating people.". 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. While the photo of Kennedy cozying up to Monroe is the best known of him with one of his purported lovers, other far less public snapshots show the flip side of Kennedy's intimate relationships. It was pretty clear he had some intravenous drug use back then, and he was the only person we knew who did.'. Sam Gillette is a books Writer/Reporter for People.com and People Magazine. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: RFK Jr. and the Dark Side of the Dream. ], 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.. ", One of Jack's five sisters, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, found it hard to describe her brother's relationship with Billings, once stating, "It was a complete liberation of the spirit" for Jack, and that her brother was a "complete liberated man when he was with Lem. Unlike Millbrook and Pomfret, Palfrey Street was a day school, so Billings arranged with the Brode family of Cambridge to house and feed him, and watch out for him. He attended one of the parents' weekends, but was never seen on campus again. She reportedly had a love-hate relationship with her husband's best friend. 'They make fun of my voice. Son of Frederick Tremaine Billings and Romaine Elizabeth (LeMoyne) Billings. ", But Billings was embarrassed about his effeminate mannerisms - he'd remain publicly closeted for his lifetime. The biographer Sally Bedell Smith, referred to Billings in one of her books as 'probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows.'. 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. 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. 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. . lifelong close friend of President John F. Kennedy. . through his life. The book "Jack and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship," details the extraordinary relationship between two unlikely friends. From the book Jackie & Me by Louis Bayard. Only a very liberal school [like Pomfret] that needed money would take him.'. 121 likes. 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.'. By Sydney Taylor Written on Nov 06, 2021. Billings had a romantic relationship with JFK's nephew, Bobby Kennedy Jr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And The Dark Side Of The Dream Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. 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. Yesterday was Jack's birthday. But it was the only boarding school that Lem Billings could find that would admit him. 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. . 'Bobby was Machiavellian. But Kennedy's reaction to Billings gay come-on soon changed and he became more amenable to his friend's advances, according to the writer Lawrence J. Quirk, author of 'The Kennedys in Hollywood.' Kirk LeMoyne Lem Billings (April 15, 1916 May 28, 1981) was a close friend of President John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family.