Gore Vidal, the writer who claimed he viewed homosexuality as normal as heterosexuality, disparaged the JFK-Billings relationship during the Kennedy administration. 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). A crew jock, he met Jack at Choate, a boys' boarding school, in Wallingford, Connecticut (it is now co-ed). He had clearly been adopted into the larger Kennedy clan, and Jackie drew him into her family circle as well. During that time, he told researchers, "All the kids came over to see me. 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. Vidal, the author of a best-selling gay World War II novel, published in 1947 at a time when most queer books were ruled obscene and evidence of homosexual acts could bring a prison term, was unabashedly public about his affairs with men. Kennedy. Release of Secret JFK Assassination Records Delayed by Biden, Angering Some of the Kennedys. [6][7], In 1941, Billings failed medical tests required by the military. He remained close with various family members, most notably Robert F. Kennedy Jr., though there was a dark side: Peter Collier and David Horowitz's The Kennedys: An American Drama for which Billings gave a number of interviews describes him descending into drug use in connection with his relationship with a young Bobby Kennedy (who had well documented drug issues himself). In many ways, Kennedy was also enjoying the kind of sex life that would later characterize the gay mens party of the 1970s. [19], In 1961, Billings declined Kennedy's offer to appoint him the first head of the Peace Corps, director of a new agency to promote tourism, the U.S. Travel Service, or ambassador to Denmark. [35] In 1962 he escorted two of the President's sisters, Eunice Shriver and Jean Kennedy Smith, around Europe for more than two weeks. The Kennedys were a liberal family and one that tolerated a lot of heterosexual promiscuity as well. In Jackies absence, Lem managed the Presidents dinner parties, social life and children. 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. John F. Kennedy bi-sexual or gay? From 1933 to 1946, Billings and JFK exchanged letters, with Jack often antagonizing Lem in the correspondence. [21][22] The next year, Kennedy named him to a board to plan America's participation in the New York World's Fair of 19645. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. "Because of him, I was never lonely," Billings said once. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. Poor guy. JAMIE RICHARDSON: John F. Kennedy had no shortage of people who considered themselves friends of the 35th president. In 1958, when Kennedy decided to launch a campaign for the presidency from his Massachusetts Senate seat, the United States had not yet experienced a sexual revolution that would challenge and change many people. 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." The Cold War was still raging, and there was fear Russian agents might use the friendship against Kennedy. In many ways, Lem was like a father to me and he was the best friend I will ever have.' Co-executive Editor, Public Seminar and Professor of History, The New School for Social Research, Photo credit: Cecil Stoughton/Wikimedia Commons. In their own words: 'each death is attributed to a single underlying cause the cause that initiated the series of . Like the rest of the free world, Billings was devastated when President Kennedy was assassinated. 228. Eunice Kennedy Shriver said, 'I'm sure he's already organizing everything in heaven so it will be completely ready for us -- with just the right Early American furniture, the right curtains, the right rugs, the right paintings, and everything ready for a big, big party. As the then-Senator stepped up for his turn, Williams admired his body. 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. it would not surprise me knowing how most of the Kennedys (including ole Joe!) I'm not that kind of boy.' In 2009, Robert Dallek published part of an interview with Barbara Gamerekian, a former White House aide, who named three prominent women, two secretaries nicknamed Fiddle and Faddle and a college sophomore who couldnt type (Alford) as a few of the sexual partners who helped the President release his daily tensions, often in the White House swimming pool or on official trips around the nation, where women were sometimes flown in on separate planes so that they could be available. 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. However he does quote Billings admission that he may have been in love with Kennedy his whole life. Lem and Jack were insulated by money, and by the reticence of journalists to open closet doors that powerful men, gay and straight, preferred to leave closed. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. Although Alford refused, she did not always have the self-confidence to say no: earlier, she had fellated a staff member in Jacks presence. I have one additional comment, probably to be regarded as politically incorrect. Lem was a virtual fixture in the Kennedy family who even had his own room at the White House. ', Their arrangement, Quirk asserted, '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 he further observed, 'Jack was in love with Lem being in love with him and considered him the ideal follower adorer. The comments below have been moderated in advance. Billings as a teenager was 6' 2", weighed 175 pounds, and was the strongest member of the Choate crew. 'I would take the shuttle down to Washington, go to the White House and we would be picked up by helicopter there -- flown to Andrews (Air Force Base) and taken by Air Force One to Otis on the Cape. Between 1933 and 1935, The bond between Jack and Lem grew so tight, journalist David Pitts wrote in Jack and Lem (2008), that they really had no need for friendships with other boys.. "Raffish and yet prissy," they write of Billings "a sort of court chronicler reporting on the old days which even Bobby and Ethel didn't recall and functioning as the all-purpose cheerleader, godfather, and pallbearer who could always be counted on. ", As Pitts writes, Jack "wasn't going to let anyone control his life, and he certainly wasn't going to let anyone choose his friends.". As Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee recalled much later, "I suppose it's known that Lem was gay.. Sprawling home where JonBenet Ramsey was found murdered in 1996 is listed for sale for $7 MILLION by current Royal Mail increase price of first class stamp by 15p to 1.10 in record-breaking hike. Billings reportedly told Kennedy of his romantic intentions in prep school (JFK pictured chatting with Marilyn Monroe and Robert F Kennedy). "Depending upon where the lung cancer was, her heart could have taken a direct hit," said Dr. Sharonne N. Hayes, a cardiologist and founder of the Women's Heart Clinic at the Mayo Clinic. Kennedy was allegedly on the receiving end of oral sex. Vessey paid Masters with meth and a vehicle in exchange for the death of Billings. Sitelinks. While Billings' missive is long gone, a startled Kennedy responded, 'Please don't write to me on toilet paper anymore. Lem had caught a cold in July by swimming in the Loire River at Chenonceau and Jack developed his own problems in Southampton on August 27 while saying goodbye to his mother and siblings Joe and Kick as they departed for America. He remained in the closet until his death in. Both men are being held in . It contained scores of photographs of himself and Jack in Europe, as well as a handwritten narrative. But I'm stuck with the Kennedys emotionally, and I will be to the end of my life. He had a very independent mind. The story about Lem Billings '39 and JFK was very interesting and even moving (cover story, April 12). In the fictionalAmerican Adulterer (2009), novelist Jed Mercurio s imagines a Kennedy who believes that ejaculating several times a day was crucial to maintaining good health and mental alertness, a form of self-care and that controlled his attacks of Addisons Disease by preventing seminal fluid from backing up into his body. Criticisms from others in the Kennedy orbit insinuate that Jack took advantage of Lem's love for him without reciprocating. To begin with, why would JFK give him a private room at the white house, to come and go at his leisure? In 1965, Mrs. Kennedy invited Billings to accompany her and her children to England for the unveiling of a memorial to Kennedy at Runnymede. [37], Billings' role as "first friend" was assessed by many observers at the time and since. But straight men can have a gay side, and JFKs life was filled with prominent gay men, friendships which open the door to other histories. Prince Andrew has 'offered to manage prestigious Royal estates including Balmoral but King Charles has told PLATELL'S PEOPLE: Yes, Madonna toyboys are fun but not if you value your dignity. Naval Academy. Claire Potter is professor of history at The New School, and Executive Editor of Public Seminar. [4] The non-sectarian, wooded hillside park is located at 4734 Butler Street in the Lawrenceville neighborhood, and bounded by the Bloomfield, Garfield, and Stanton Heights areas. He may have been the reason I never married.. It would be the last Christmas in which the United States would be at peace for more than four years. He noted that everywhere Jack went, Billings was sure to follow, like a puppy dog. Billings, he said, "had a natural jealousy. ', White House visitor: Billings often spent the night at the White House, which upset Jackie Kennedy. In recent years, there has also been talk of a movie adaptation. The Kennedy Curse" Episode 205 -- Pictured: Grant Logan as JFK, Adam Cropper as Lem Billings -- John F. Kennedy, "Dunker" the dog, and Lem Billings at the Hague, during their Europe trip. Public Seminar is a journal of ideas, politics, and culture published by the Public Seminar Publishing Initiative at The New School. Lem Billings may have been present for, but just outside the frame, of these pictures. [18], In 1960, on leave from his job, he worked on Kennedy's presidential campaign. 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. A new book is claiming that John F. Kennedy had more than just a platonic friendship with his life-long gay best friend, Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings. 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. "I'm sure he's already organizing everything in heaven so it will be completely ready for us with just the right Early American furniture, the right curtains, the right rugs, the right paintings," Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the president's sister, said in a eulogy. ', 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. Advocate Contributors November 22 2013 4:00 AM EST In photos. What is most interesting to me is the relationship between sexual abuse and power and how idolized men in particular seem to some along with this inability/unwillingness to be kind.Lems story seems tragic, good material for a play or musical. He was also plagued by ill health. I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another.'. JFK also shared women with male friends and relatives, a homoerotic impulse often seen in fraternities or other male organizations where men reinforce intimacy by having sex with the same woman. I've had enough of life': Grandmother, 86, is reduced to tears after killjoy Tory RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: As Florida governor and Donald Trump rival Ron DeSantis steps up his bid to win the Hairy Bikers star Dave Myers speaks out on his deep depression after chemotherapy which left him having 'How I snatched JK Rowling's baby out of her abusive husband's arms - and helped her flee with the Harry Top equestrian rider, 39, once known as the 'golden girl' of horse eventing, is facing jail after being A possum feared extinct is discovered by an amateur naturalist in Papua New Guinea being cooked on a Now California reparations panel RAISES amount it wants to give 1.8m black people from $220,000 to $360,000 My weekly horoscope: What will March 4th 2023 bring for MY star sign? He was by all accounts JFK's best friend . 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. [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. 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. Knowing that, like many men who lived double lives, he could have had a wife and family, Billings regarded his friendship with Jack as a gift. Lem Billings was a lifelong friend of Kennedy's, beginning from when they were roommates at Choate, continuing til Kennedy's assassination in 1963. Indeed, it often seems that Kennedy did treat people who loved him for granted. Published: 16:57 GMT, 9 June 2017 | Updated: 19:00 GMT, 9 June 2017. [50] In 2006, looking back to the Kennedy Administration, Ben Bradlee said: "I suppose it's known that Lem was gay.It impressed me that Jack had gay friends. JFK's Best Friend Lem: Transcript. Having been given special access to the Billings papers by Robert Kennedy, Jr., Pitts was either unable to verify a sexual relationship, or he was unwilling to cite his source. Could he have been the third leg of what was clearly an unconventional marriage? Wiggins was serving a 28 years . "[Billings] was a witness to so much of what was going on. 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 . Ironically, Motlow, who had sustained a stroke in 1940, died that same year . Jack" he said as he gazed at him softly, It's been a long time. '"[39], Most recognized that Billings and Kennedy had been friends from youth and did not question their relationship or Billings' presence. 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. His book Jack and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship, from which the text of this slideshow is excerpted, was one of The Advocate's five best books of 2007. Lem (Kenny Johnson) refuses to live the rest of his life as a fugitive in Mexico.S5E11 - Postpartum (FX The Shield)I DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO THE VIDEO CLIPS. Both boys kept diaries on the trip, although Lem's was more of a scrapbook. [4], In 1939, Billings graduated from Princeton where he majored in art and architecture[5] and wrote his senior thesis on Tintoretto. Describing his friend as a "very normal, regular boy," Billings said his favorite of Jack's characteristics was his light spirit: "I've never known anyone in my life with such a wonderful humor and the wonderful ability to make one laugh and to have a good time. 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 never really left Jacks orbit after boarding school. Description: In this interview, Billings discusses John F. Kennedy's time at Choate, his family life, and their first trip to Europe together, among other issues. Access Restriction Status: Open. 'It was very hard for him, but he wanted to do it and he stuck with it,' Lucretia added. He may have been the reason I never got married. Copyright 20142023 The Editorial Board of Public Seminar, All Rights Reserved. And the White House itself seems to have been welcoming to other non-heteronormative men in the Kennedy years. The parents who fear their 11-year-olds will be scarred for life by the graphic sex education lessons that Two Insulate Britain protesters are jailed for contempt of court after they defied a judge's orders not to 'Derek fights on, it makes me fall in love with him all over again:' Kate Garraway reveals there are days French authorities fear 'narco-tourists' could flock to Normandy beaches after 'more than two tonnes of Hopes for cervical cancer vaccine after trials in mice showed it reduced tumours 80 per cent of the time. "[53] Though newspapers often mentioned Billings' attendance at major social events, they identified him either as the escort of a member of the Kennedy family or included him in a list of Kennedy friends. The elder Kennedys began to discourage the boys from associating with Billings because of his excessive recreational drug use (including alcohol). "[41] Gore Vidal, who was banned from the White House after a run-in with Billings,[42] was critical of Billings,[43] but also thought Billings played an important role as an aide to Kennedy, who was often ill or in pain. He might have been the reason I never got married. According to author Christopher Bram (2012), Vidal told the playwright he shouldnt cruise our next president, then repeated the remark to Kennedy. Later accounts detailed how Billings had found himself adrift as a student at Choate in the wake of his father's death: "The Kennedys provided family and support and so forth," his nephew told Princeton University's alumni magazine in 2017. [44] "Jack made a big difference in my life," Billings said. To order a copy, click here. [9] He saw action in North Africa in 194243. Their mothers just married the same man.
Cultural Diversity Encompasses All Of The Following Factors Except,
Hap Fauth Net Worth,
Car Accident In Rosemount, Mn Today,
Woman Of The Woods West Virginia,
Articles L