lem billings funeral
lem billings funeral
lem billings funeral
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. 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. After the assassination of Robert Kennedy, a distraught Ethel turned over her son, Bobby Jr., to Billings to act as his surrogate father, sparking her brother-in-law, Terrien RFK's roommate at the University of Virginia law school to wonder why she would allow 'Lem to have such an intimate relationship' with her troubled third born, who would go on to have a a bizarre relationship with Billings, including the taking of drugs. ', 'It was that kind of talk, more bragging, but I believed him. Jack and Lem met at Choate in 1933. 'It was kept 'very hush-hush,' recalled the music teacher James Hejduk. by the end of his own lifetime he would have been described as gay. A name he kept stumbling across was Lem Billings, who was identified as John Kennedy's longtime best friend. It was he, not Ethel, who handled all of Bobby's expenses 'He would come over fairly frequently for dinner whenever he was in town,' she recalled. In the spring of 1972, with graduation approaching, Bobby took the SAT college board exam, and filled out his application for college. A different side of JFK: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings met atChoate Rosemary Hall and became lifelong friends. Quirk claims Billings would later confide in him that his relationship with Kennedy was sexual, to a point, and included oral sex, with Jack always on the receiving end., Their arrangement, Quirk says, 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, and, Jack was in love with Lem being in love with him and considered him the ideal follower adorer.. Ethel virtually abandoned 14-year-old Bobby after RFK's assassination in 1968, suddenly and inexplicably turning over his care, feeding and education to Lem Billings. Mark Bontecou, a scion of the wealthy Bontecou family of Millbrook, which had once owned a good part of the land on which Millbrook School resided, also recalled how Billings was a constant companion of Bobby's during the school year. From the book Jackie & Me by Louis Bayard. 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. When Jack Kennedy and Billings were at Choate and later, when they were seemingly joined at the hip at Princeton for a time before Kennedy transferred to Harvard at his father's behest, Billings always accompanied him home on vacations. Kirk LeMoyne Lem Billings (April 15, 1916 May 28, 1981) was a close friend of President John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family. RELATED VIDEO: Carly Simon Opens Up on Unlikely Friendship with Jackie Kennedy and Jackie's Thoughts on JFK, Aristotle Onassis & More, By now, of course, I'm extricating myself from the front of the car and inserting myself with no great grace into the back, and the operation is so consuming that, for a second or two, I lose all consciousness of her, and then I hear her sayin that voice, like a ghost whispering through the pipes"You must be Lem.". The Cold War was still raging, and there was fear Russian agents might use the friendship against Kennedy. The pair had a three-decades long friendship that some have speculated may have also included a romantic affair. Lem Billings. Sam Gillette is a books Writer/Reporter for People.com and People Magazine. He headed the committee that oversaw the construction of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. the two men was friendship. "It's very clear to me, too, from the research, that she was absolutely besotted with Jack Kennedy," he explains. I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another.'. 16. "Because he was so handsome, and he was so charming, and he just had that way about him.". He truly loved the Kennedy's and as Jack's best friend. 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. 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." All I can make out through my encrusted specs are a row of white pilasters and a front portico. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him my sec Jackie, I imagine, is now asking the name of Bobby's daughter or wondering if Eunice will be there and which one is Pat? He thought ', 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. When their brother Bobby married Ethel Skakel in a royal-like wedding in Greenwich, Connecticut, the staunchly conservative republican and seemingly homophobic Skakels let their feelings about Billings' gayness be known. 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. The content produced by YourTango is for informational and educational purposes only. His goal was acceptance at Harvard, which was virtually guaranteed, so many Kennedys before had gone there. Lem also worked for JFK in the West Virginia and Wisconsin primaries Her main concern was that he be on time for dinner. Doesn't she hear the car's tires on the gravel? "But John F. Kennedy with Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. When JFK was assassinated, he turned his attention to his nephew Bobby Kennedy Jr. Jack and Lem explores the enduring friendship between John F. Kennedy and Kirk Lemoyne Billings (aka "Lem"). Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings (April 15, 1916 - May 28, 1981) was a close and long-time friend of President John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family. In her memoir, Times To Remember, published eleven years after Jack's assassination in Dallas in 1963, she wrote that Billings had "remained Jack's lifelong close friend, confidant, sharer in old memories and new experiences", He has really been part of "our family" since that first time he showed up at our house as one of "Jack's surprises. There was a fear Russian agents could use the relationship to blackmail Kennedy, says Oppenheimer. Jerry Oppenheimer is a New York Times bestselling author who has written two books about the Kennedys. While he told Bobby that he should find a woman like his aunt Jackie, none of Bobby's three wives would be anything like her. I'd known him then for a few months and knew he'd do anything. 'He was coming up and he was taking Bobby out to dinner and things like that. But for this kid to say that to me at that time was pretty deep and dark. John F. Kennedy and Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billingsmet in 1933 as sophomoresat Choate Rosemary Hall, a Connecticut prep school where they worked on their class yearbook together. A falconer, Bobby kept a pigeon-size sparrow hawk that flew loose in the small room. 'Bobby was Machiavellian. I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity.]. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he . Their close relationship also caused his advisors to fear blackmail and political repercussions from Russian agents. Of course, that gave most ofus the thought - does this guy have a job other than caring for Bobby? ", 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. 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!' And now that we've crossed into Virginia, the only thing left to figure out is where she might live. book review of Jack and Lem, The New Haven Register interviewed the author and Wright said he never heard from Bobby's mother after the decision was made to boot her son. Infuriated, his mother demanded: 'Just leave home. Fredrik Logevall on JFK, with David Nasaw, October 6, 2020, 3. "And I think he might have been, honestly. 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. "They make fun of my voice. This was at the end of their final presidential debate at Hofstra University in New York in October, 2008. 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. On June 30, 1937 John F. "Jack" Kennedy embarked on a two-and-a-half-month tour of Europe with his friend Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings aboard the S.S. Washington. She saw that Lem Billings was obsessively devoted to Bobby. Oppenheimer wrote in the Daily Mail that their intimate relationship would last from their school years to the day of Kennedys assassination. him to drink. "Because of him," Lem Billings once said of President Kennedy, "I was never lonely" 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. Lem Billings was called and, according to Donn Wright, who became the new headmaster, 'he didn't try to change anybody's minds. "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. 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. Quirk immediately pegged Billings as gay, noting his 'high, screechy laugh,' and 'high nasal whine of a voice.' Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. lifelong close friend of President John F. Kennedy. The Cold War was still raging, and there was fear Russian agents might use the friendship against Kennedy. Anyone can read what you share. There is nothing, in short, about a "Miss Bouvier" to separate her from her predecessors. Mr. Billings was active in all of John Kennedy's campaigns as well as those of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. 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. 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.'. He later received I thought, anything goes with this guy. He had an older sister, Ruth (Speer) Steele, older brother, Eugene "Bud" Speer, and younger half-brother Lawrence "Larry" Payant. Lem Billings. " Bayard says of Billings. "Will we be chauffeuring her fianc, too? The young JFK, messing around with Lem Billings during their Choate years. "And he also played a very important role in the courtship between Jackie Bouvier and Jack Kennedy. . 'But the one thing that struck me even at that tender age was that I felt Lem was just obsessed with Bobby the way he watched over him, the way he was hugely protective of him. However, the relationship between The book is set in 1981, in New York City, where Jackie has settled after becoming the Widow Onassis and joining the working world. Jfk And Jackie Kennedy. Quirk had met Billings in the mid-Forties when both were volunteers in Jack Kennedy's first congressional campaign. (Video) Caroline Kennedy on JFK's secret recordings, (Video) JFK's Women: Scandals Revealed | CBC, (Video) July 20, 1962 - President John F. Kennedy arriving home for weekend, (Video) President Kennedy's family reflects on his 100th birthday, 2. Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. 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 President Kennedy was the first US president to meet Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace, when the Queen and Prince Philip hosted the president and first lady for dinner in 1961, according to the US Embassy and Consulates in the UK. Still, 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. Like the rest of the free world, Billings was devastated when President Kennedy was assassinated. 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. 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. At Pomfret, he also ignored most of the white kids and hung out with a small group of black students who were part of a program to help underprivileged boys from the mean streets of New York City, some of them gang members. But by the time he was with his second roommate, Jamie Fanning, the room had just a few photos, and hippie posters had replaced the funereal black sheets. Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want me to remind everyone of that today. 'Sometimes I answered the phone and I would hear her wispy voice, and then I would get my husband to talk to her.'. quoted from the book: "Jack made a big difference in my life," Once again, Ethel Kennedy made just one appearance at the school, accompanied by Lem Billings, when Bobby was admitted, and 'everything had to go through Billings,' said Warren Geissinger, Bobby's Pomfret advisor, looking back years later. Lem Billings had heard about the school from Adam Yarmolinsky, a one-time trusted aide to both RFK and JFK, whose son had graduated a year before Bobby's arrival. Try our online preplanning tool. who established the African-American LeMoyne-Owen College). In a 2007 Given that Billings was a heavy-drinking 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. Featuring interviews with Ben Bradlee, Gore Vidal, Ted Sorenson, friends, family, and many . He served with the Navy in the Pacific during World War II, then attended the Harvard Graduate School of Business. reason I never got married.". 'He almost did things to shock you on purposeIt was a pretty dark, grim time; he was miserable and he was angry. mutual distaste for their school and its headmaster, Seymour St. John. claims bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer, Lyndon B. Johnson demanded to be sworn in alongside Jackie Kennedy, How you can learn Gaelic literature and culture online with a top Irish university, The story behind Ireland's favorite song, The Cranberries "Zombie", How the Irish (and Welsh) invented romantic love. 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. Somebody who was also not of the Kennedys, but very much wanted to be one of them. They adopted a little JAMIE RICHARDSON: John F. Kennedy had no shortage of people who considered themselves friends of the 35th president. ', Hejduk also immediately perceived that the relationship between Bobby and Billings 'was probably one of those unrequited-love kind of things.'. When we first happen upon her, her face is angled away, as though she's cocking her ear for a nightingale. But was reportedly upset that her husband spent so much time with him, and that he often stayed overnight at the White House. From 1946 to 1948, Lem attended Harvard Business School. In the early spring of 1971, Bobby was being carefully watched by the administration because of drugs. (See below for an exclusive excerpt.). In June 1961, just months after Kennedy began his presidential term, he and Jackie visited Buckingham Palace, where a black tie banquet was hosted in the President's honour. Lem Billings, from a distinguished old American Protestant family, was taller, bigger, stronger, with a high-pitched voice and a loud laugh. Find the obituary of Lem Speer (1928 - 2021) from Billings, MT. 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. 'Everybody was at least smoking pot - everybody - and a lot of people were doing LSD and other recreational stuff,' recalled classmate John Seibel, who became an attorney. dachshund they named Dunker but had to give him up because of Jack's allergies. Born 15 Apr 1916 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, United States. Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. During their wedding in Greenwich, Connecticut, Ethels brother knocked Billings down the aisle at the church. Brode had liberal views, didn't mind that Bobby smoked pot with Lem Billings in Bobby's room. Supposedly Billings had written a love note on a piece of toilet paper while the two were still in school. Billings would later spend nights in the White House where he had his own room, Schoolboy crush? 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. Billings maintained close ties to the Kennedys and their children He escorted Mrs. Stephen Smith, sister of the late President, to . Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he sometimes acted as escort for several of the Kennedy women . Sixteen days after RFK was buried, Ethel and her brood were aboard a yacht destined for Hyannis Port and the Kennedy compound. The result is a meditation on the definitions . Kirk Billings, 65, Dies; Friend of the Kennedys, https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/29/obituaries/kirk-billings-65-dies-friend-of-the-kennedys.html. Try again later. In truth, the Kennedys did have criticisms of Queen Elizabeth following their meeting. I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity.]". The elder Kennedys at some point desired that the younger Kennedys: Their foresight led to the development of a funeral home dedicated to providing the best quality service possible to families at their . I say. Adapted from New York Times bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer's explosive new book, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: RFK Jr. and the Dark Side of the Dream. Jack Johns. October 14, 2015. Arrangements are pending at Billings Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Elkhart. As they became close, Billings confided that his relationship with Kennedy was, in fact, sexual, to a point. * Originally published in June 2017, updated in 2022. If we had made that very different choice, we would've gone down a completely different road. 'Yesterday was Jack's birthday. Like the rest of the free world, Billings was devastated when President Kennedy was assassinated.