An intimate of Billings, writer Lawrence J. Quirk, claimed that Billings, whom he met in 1946 when both worked in Jack Kennedy's first congressional campaign, had confided to him that their relationship did, in fact, involve sex acts 'a friendship that included oral sex, with Jack always on the receiving end. John F. Kennedy and Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings met in 1933 as sophomores at Choate Rosemary Hall, a Connecticut prep school where they worked on their class yearbook together. When Joey Brode heard the story years later, she said that what Bobby had done, if true, was 'disgusting. 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. ", "We'd have to drive clear to New York for that. However, Kennedy's feelings soon changed and he became more amenable to his friend's advances, according to Lawrence J. Quirk, author of The Kennedys in Hollywood, who first met Billings in the mid-forties when both were volunteers in Jack Kennedy's first congressional campaign. Lem Billings would play many roles in Bobby's life, as adventurer accompanying him on expeditions in the wild, as fellow druggie, and as his Dear Abby, advising him on who to date and who not to. He's just like Jack!' And I think Billings had a way of editing things - painting the picture of Bobby's performance smoother than it really was. Lem Billings passed away from a heart attack at 65 in 1981. Supposedly. In the spring of 1972, with graduation approaching, Bobby took the SAT college board exam, and filled out his application for college. They continued to Princeton "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. 'We never saw Ethel on the campus again. He was 65 years old. Lem's father died in 1933 placing additional strain on the family's His classmates were worried that he was going to kill himself, that we were going to find him dead.'. Lem Billings (left) became a surrogate father to Bobby Kennedy Jr. (right). Their close relationship also caused his advisors to fear blackmail and political repercussions from Russian agents. 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. 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 . 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. 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. 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. was running for President. Jerry Oppenheimer is a New York Times bestselling author who has written two books about the Kennedys. Lem also worked for JFK in the West Virginia and Wisconsin primaries 'Bobby would take his hawk and go hunting rats in the midst of the rotting cow carcasses and he sort of reveled in how off- the-wall that was. Blogs; Online will; Shop. A Princeton friend and former business partner confided to Pitts about Billings that after Jack's death: "He didn't want to live anymore," and other friends claimed that he never recovered from the loss. It's when we're crossing back over Chain Bridge that she rouses herself to ask: "Jack, what color is your car?". One of the most credible accounts of the Kennedy-Billings relationship was told by David Pitts, who I interviewed extensively for my book, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.And The Dark Side Of The Dream, because the strapping, bespectacled Billings, with a high-pitched, effeminate voice, would later become the fawning surrogate father and fellow drug user of JFK's nephew, Bobby Kennedy Jr., with whom Billings also had intense romantic feelings. and helped gather delegates at the Democratic convention in Los Angeles when JFK Bobby Kennedy Jr. read the eulogy. Although Joe Kennedy, the family patriarch, was reportedly suspicious of Billings close relationship with his son, the Kennedy family welcomed Billings into their exclusive family circle. I thought, anything goes with this guy. /. The President never failed to introduce Lem formally to visiting heads of state, dignitaries, and celebrities, but the introduction was never simply a matter of "I would like you to meet my friend, LeMoyne Billings." "He'd introduce me as Congressman Billings or Senator Billings, and even General Billings," Lem would later recall . He once called Billings the 'chief f****t at Camelot.' The Kennedys were a liberal family and one that tolerated a lot of heterosexual promiscuity as well. LeMoyne Billings and Ethel Kennedy attend Liza Minnelli Concert on May 23, 1970 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He thought Everything involving Bobby had to go through Billings. '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, he said. Something quickens in the column of her neck. He had an older sister, Ruth (Speer) Steele, older brother, Eugene "Bud" Speer, and younger half-brother Lawrence "Larry" Payant. 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. Lem even wrote John a love note on toilet paper . As he acknowledged some years later: 'Soon after my father's death I made a series of choices involving drugs that started me down a road from which I had to struggle to return.'. By Sydney Taylor Written on Nov 06, 2021. 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. To virtually attend a service live 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 (April 15, 1916 - May 28, 1981) was a close and long-time friend of President John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family. and Jack first met at Choate Rosemary Hall in 1933 when Lem was 17 and Jack was 'But Lem,' he clearly recalled, 'was around a lot, and we as faculty were told who he was and that he was Bobby's caretaker, as it were, in a loco parentis kind of role. She never visited.'. Kennedy was unwell through much of his childhood, beginning with a near-deadly case of scarlet . Arrangements are pending at Billings Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Elkhart. This page is created to honor his memory and is dedicated to his family and friends. There is nothing, in short, about a "Miss Bouvier" to separate her from her predecessors. For all I know, she's speculating about the Washington Senators' pennant chances. Mr. Billings and Mr. Kennedy were roommates at Choate and then at Princeton before Mr. Kennedy transferred to Harvard. Extent: 82 digital pages Collection: Young Jfk. After it was all over, 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 never was here.' Leave your condolences to the family on this memorial page or send flowers to show you care. While Billings' missive is long gone, a startled Kennedy responded, "Please don't write to me on toilet paper anymore. In what was later viewed as a twisted relationship, Billings was pumping up Bobby for a high political future at the same time he was sharing drugs with him, from marijuana to heroin through their years together. While Billings' missive is long gone, a startled Kennedy responded, 'Please don't write to me on toilet paper anymore. "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. RFK's assassination had naturally devastated his 40-year-old wife, Ethel, who was pregnant with her eleventh child. I can't even tell. The first lady, Jackie, had something of a love-hate relationship with Billings. The Kennedys tolerated his homosexuality, which was considered taboo at the time, Lawrence J. Quirk, the author of'The Kennedys in Hollywood' said Billings and JFK's relationship turned sexual at a point. In his second year at Millbrook, Bobby began boasting that he was doing certain drugs intravenously - shooting up, like any street junkie. . Among the faculty there may have been a collective sigh of reliefbecause things with Bobby would have only escalated and the attitude was, okay, he's now the next school's problem.'. and one of the guys just happened to be what we think of today as gay," Reprinted by permission. The Kennedys were a liberal family and one that tolerated a lot of heterosexual promiscuity as well., In her memoir, Times To Remember, published eleven years after JFKs assassination in Dallas in 1963, matriarch Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy wrote that Billings had remained Jack's lifelong close friend, confidant, sharer in old memories and new experiencesHe has really been part of 'our family' since that first time he showed up at our house as one of 'Jack's surprises., Lem Billings and John F. Kennedy pictured at the Kennedy familys Palm Beach estate. Kirk LeMoyne Billings, a retired advertising executive and a friend of President John F. Kennedy, died Wednesday at his Manhattan apartment. Terrien had been RFK's roommate at Harvard and later at the University of Virginia Law School, and he was particularly upset about what he saw clearly as Billings's growing infatuation with young Bobby. Sam Gillette is a books Writer/Reporter for People.com and People Magazine. Tglich werden Tausende neue hochwertige Bilder hinzugefgt. 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. 2023 Meadowrockalpacas. 2023byTango Publishing Corporation All Rights Reserved. I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity.]. 'We'd have these conversations in our room at night, lying there before we'd fall asleep [Bobby on the top bunk, Fanning on the lower], and he told me that when you go to somebody's house always ask to use the bathroom and check in their medicine cabinet because they always have good pills that you can steal. Get out of my life.'. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he . defeated. " Bayard says of Billings. The book is set in 1981, in New York City, where Jackie has settled after becoming the Widow Onassis and joining the working world. "And who should that be?". I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another.'. His appearances were unusual in that you never knew when he was going to show up. Lem Chesmore is a 34-year-old Billings native who grew up on the sport of boxing, first competing in 1980 at the Boys and Girls Club located on South 28th Street. Jackie, I imagine, is now asking the name of Bobby's daughter or wondering if Eunice will be there and which one is Pat? Billings Funeral Home | 812 Baldwin Street | Elkhart, IN 46514 | Tel: 574-264-2425. Quirk immediately pegged Billings as gay, noting his "high, screechy laugh," and "high nasal whine of a voice.". Take a look inside Dublin's most stylish townhouse, Number 31. According to The Telegraph, Cecil Beaton claimed that Kennedy was unimpressed by the palace furnishings and by the Queen's dress and hairstyle. Gore Vidal claimed that Jackie described the queen as pretty heavy going.. Bayard, the bestselling author of Courting Mr. Lincoln and The Pale Blue Eye, tells PEOPLE he was "agnostic" about the Kennedy clan until he learned about Billings' personal history. ", "I thought, 'What a great cat-bird seat he would've had, and wouldn't he make a great narrator?' Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings was a bumbling giant, the offspring of a prominent but cash-poor Protestant family. He attended one of the parents' weekends, but was never seen on campus again. ', In fact, in private, she ranted, 'You've dragged your family's name through the mud.'. 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.'. 'Ethel never had any contact about her son. 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. Given that Billings was a heavy-drinking After Kennedys assassination, Billings was devastated. Even when Bobby was invited to weekend lunches at the Bontecou estate, it was Billings who accompanied him. On school breaks, Jack often brought Billings home with him, sparking Joe Kennedy to complain to his wife, Rose, "Do we have to have that q***r around all summer?". Of the Kennedys, only Bobby's uncle Ted had shown up at Millbrook to see how his nephew was doing. Beyond love, Jackie & Me is also about how decisions can define us. He was born in Pittsburgh and graduated from Princeton. "Will we be chauffeuring her fianc, too? Kennedy was allegedly on the receiving end of oral sex. 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. Years later, when Bobby was an undergraduate at Harvard, it would be Billings the boy's Svengali-like surrogate father who took control of his life after RFK's assassination who would convince Bobby that one day he could become the next Kennedy president of the United States.
How Many Typhoons Does The Raf Have,
How To Open Riot Squad Bottle,
Articles L