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'Yesterday was Jack's birthday. ', By He truly loved the Kennedy's and as Jack's best friend. The Funeral Home and/or Cemeterys policy is to NOT reproduce any copyrighted or other proprietary materials without verification from the User that they have the lawful right and/or authority to use. He was born to Otis and Anna Speer on July 14, 1928, in Glasgow, Montana. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him my sec 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. 'But Bobby was doing a little more than some of the rest of us - a little more and maybe harder stuff than the rest of us.'. I thought, anything goes with this guy. "I just became fascinated with Lem because he was a closeted but as they used to say 'practicing homosexual,' and he was very much part of the inner Kennedy circle from very early in his life," says Bayard, who did a deep dive into the Kennedy archives and biographies while doing researching for the book. 'And there he was hunting rats out of that pile of dead sheep and cow carcasses. 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. Billings maintained close ties to the Kennedys and their children I have one additional comment, probably to be regarded as politically incorrect. Billings, LeMoyne | JFK Library 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. October 14, 2015. (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. Jack was in love with Lem being in love with him and considered him the ideal follower adorer.. I let him down.'. Later Years. And seated close to Kennedy is his shirtless, tanned and oiled best friend forever, his very gay chum, Kirk LeMoyne 'Lem' Billings. 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. And now that we've crossed into Virginia, the only thing left to figure out is where she might live. John F. Kennedy Had A Sexual Relationship With His Gay Best Friend In a 2007 "It's very clear to me, too, from the research, that she was absolutely besotted with Jack Kennedy," he explains. 'There was no gnashing of teeth and sobbing in the context of his leaving. Bayard says it was a "gas" creating fictional narratives for these historical figures. Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want to remind everyone of that today. See additional information. He was kind of sinister. 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. Peter Cole, who taught English, noted, 'We as faculty members all seemed to have this awareness of Bobby's behavior and were totally unable to do anything about it, We did catch him finally and he was going to get tossed.'. Kirk LeMoyne Billings, a retired advertising executive and a friend of President John F. Kennedy, died Wednesday at his Manhattan apartment. Keep reading for an exclusive excerpt from Jackie & Me. But the man married to Jackie Kennedy was quietly chided for his compulsive philandering. The Camelot that Kennedy Built teddyken95: Lem Billings. Kirk LeMoyne Trio arrested during crackdown fall foul of national security law. Lem Billings was the ultimate "wing man." Billings was quietly gay, at a time when such things were not admitted to, particularly for those people who wanted to stay in high society. 7 Gay Presidential Rumors You Won't Believe (But Maybe Should) Bayard explores the beginnings of the romance between the future Mrs. Kennedy, then the inquiring photographer for the Washington Times-Herald, and young Congressman John F. Kennedy, with Jack's best friend, Lem Billings, serving as a "go-between" for the lovers in 1950s Washington, D.C. Sam Gillette is a books Writer/Reporter for People.com and People Magazine. Search - Lipstick Alley 7:44 PM. ', Hejduk also immediately perceived that the relationship between Bobby and Billings 'was probably one of those unrequited-love kind of things.'. 'I had written a report on Bobby, and Billings answered it and didn't agree with me, and that's when I thought, "Uh-oh, he's in charge here. The biographer Sally Bedell Smith, referred to Billings in one of her books as 'probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows.'. Bobby, who would become one of the nation's leading - and often controversial - environmental activists and lawyers, was a member of the falconry group at Millbrook, but his behavior was considered bizarre. In 1965, Mrs. Kennedy invited Billings to accompany her and her children to England for the unveiling of a memorial to Kennedy at Runnymede. '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. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. "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. 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. The Elkhart Truth Obituaries - Legacy.com Billings was devastated after the JFK assassination. guest every weekend of my married life." I was told by Billings, "Nothing ever goes directly to Ethel." Try our online preplanning tool. 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. White House. When Bobby Kennedy, Billings said. 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 . I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another. education of free black Americans after the Confederate States of America was He'd say, 'When you're shooting speed it's such a good rush. In the summer of 1934, future United States president John F Kennedy was in his junior year at the prestigious Choate School in Connecticut. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 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. New York City, taking lunch from his job at Lennen & Newell. 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,' recalled classmate John Cuetera, who became a psychologist. 'Bobby was Machiavellian. I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity. Young John F. Kennedy (35th U.S President) with his gay - reddit Kennedy and Billings met in 1933 in their sophomore year at Choate Rosemary Hall, an exclusive Connecticut prep school. Of course, that gave most ofus the thought - does this guy have a job other than caring for Bobby? He noted that everywhere Jack went, Billings was sure to follow, like a puppy dog. If you need a funeral home you can trust, call today. Did JFK And Lem Bellings Have A Relationship? Details Of - YourTango According to one of the school's leading administrators and teachers, Hagop Merjian, Bobby was doing, as he put it, 'Really bad, s**t drugs heavy s**t'. Get out of my life.'. Only a very liberal school [like Pomfret] that needed money would take him.'. Lem P. Speer, 93, died peacefully in his home on November 20, 2021. Billings Funeral Home. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Billings reportedly wrote the future president a love note on a piece of toilet paper (pictured at the Kennedys' Palm Beach estate), JFK was famous for his womanizing habits, but one of his closest relationships was withLem Billings. They adopted a little In the spring of 1971, Bobby was sacked once again. 11:10 EDT 13 Oct 2015 '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. No, I wished he was only a pothead. His behavior, particularly his drug use, had the administration concerned that if something happened to the young Kennedy, such as an overdose or worse, all hell would come down on the school and tarnish its reputation. Love Irish history? From the book Jackie & Me by Louis Bayard. 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. Jackie was reportedly upset that her husband spent so much time with Billings and that he often spent the night at the White House. I'd known him then for a few months and knew he'd do anything. The hearing, lasting less than a half-hour, was held in private. the bond between Billings and Kennedy became so strong that Billings stayed back The result is a meditation on the definitions . In 1964, Billings was named to head a ten-person committee to select a memorial to Kennedy to be placed in the Kennedy Center. ISBN: 0306816237 ISBN13: 9780306816239 Jack and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship by David Pitts See Customer Reviews Select Format Hardcover $22.29 - $25.49 Paperback $12.09 - $19.04 Select Condition Like New -- Very Good Unavailable Good $12.09 Acceptable Unavailable New $19.04 Ancestors. Initially, Bobby's dorm room with his first roommate had become a veritable shrine to Bobby's father. "He also reveals that there was this crucial moment," says Bayard. Jack and Lem met at Choate in 1933. The Man Who Loved JFK - The Gay & Lesbian Review a commission in the U.S. "And I think he might have been, honestly. by the end of his own lifetime he would have been described as gay. 16. 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. "But What happened when Jackie Kennedy and Queen Elizabeth II met? Billings made his desire known while the two were still at school by writing Kennedy a love note on a piece of toilet paper. The family went back But was reportedly upset that her husband spent so much time with him, and that he often stayed overnight at the White House. While the 35th president has been legendarily known as a womanizer who frequently cheated on his wife, Oppenheimer alleges that JFKs three-decades-long relationship with his former prep school friend Lem Billings may have been a sexual one. Inside the relationship between JFK and Lem Billings When Billings died of a heart attack in 1981, Bobby Jr gave the eulogy (From left to right: Lem Billings, Bobby Kennedy Jr andEthel Kennedy), Part of the family: From childhood to adulthood, Billings stayed close to Jack Kennedy and his family. ", 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. As they became close, Billings confided that his relationship with Kennedy was, in fact, sexual, to a point. 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. While on the road, the only person he touched base with was Lem Billings. ', As Quirk further observed, 'Jack was in love with Lem being in love with him and considered him the ideal follower-adorer.'. From 1946 to 1948, Lem attended Harvard Business School. Irked, Joe Kennedy would sneeringly ask his wife, Rose, 'Do we have to have that queer around all summer? Robert F. Kennedy Jr., David Kenne. Jack and Lem on Apple Books After Jack Kennedy's election to the presidency, Billings was a constant presence and overnight guest at the White House. Since she considered young Bobby the most difficult and troublesome of her seven sons and three daughters (with another child the daughter Rory -- due at any moment), she decided to hand him off to Lem Billings, and moreover, sent him far away to boarding school, in the rural Hudson Valley of New York State. Lem was the second person Jack's sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, called after reaching her sister, Pat Lawford. Born 15 Apr 1916 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, United States. 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. You can't even talk to him. 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. "And he also played a very important role in the courtship between Jackie Bouvier and Jack Kennedy. Billings had a romantic relationship with JFK's nephew, Bobby Kennedy Jr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And The Dark Side Of The Dream The eyes even wider. The piece featured here was a gift from Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings, a high school friend and lifelong confidant who helped Kennedy amass his scrimshaw collection, which included more than 30 . Lem Billings. lem billings funeral - Morphusx.com He's taken over."'. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Ken Bruce finishes his 30-year tenure as host of BBC Radio 2, Moment teenager crashes into back of lorry after 100mph police race, Alex Murdaugh unanimously found GUILTY of murder of wife and son, Isabel Oakeshott clashes with Nick Robinson over Hancock texts, Family of a 10-month-old baby filmed vaping open up, Ukrainian soldier takes out five tanks with Javelin missiles. The pair had a three-decades long friendship that some have speculated may have also included a romantic affair. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Jerry Oppenheimer For Dailymail.com. This page is created to honor his memory and is dedicated to his family and friends. The young JFK, messing around with Lem Billings during their Choate years. 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. RELATED:Jeffrey Epstein's Relationship With Princess Diana Explored In New Book. Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings, was a prep school roommate and then lifelong close friend of President John F. Kennedy. After Kennedys election Billings would frequently be an overnight guest, which supposedly upset the First Lady, Jackie Kennedy. After Kennedy was elected president, Billings was a constant presence at the White House, and advisers were concerned about possible political repercussions. Supposedly. Mr. Billings and Mr. Kennedy were roommates at Choate and then at Princeton before Mr. Kennedy transferred to Harvard. the Navy, as described more fully in the separate Wikipedia biography of John For the first time, I begin to wonder if Miss Bouvier is nervousthough it's difficult to confirm because she has a small voice and the wind seems to slap every word back down her gullet. The first lady, Jackie, had something of a love-hate relationship with Billings. He once called Billings the "chief f****t at Camelot." As one source told me, 'Young Bobby replaced Jack in Lem's heart of hearts.'. But I think he was using heroinstudents were saying, "Mr. Merjian, he passes out at night. 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. In his will he left his Manhattan home to Bobby. Kirk LeMoyne Billings, a retired advertising executive and a friend of President John F. Kennedy, died Wednesday at his Manhattan apartment. 'We would get a telephone call from that funny old nurse, who sounded like an old-time nanny, and she would say, "It's President Kennedy's birthday and Bobby needs to go to Mass and observe that," and my husband would have to take him,' recalled his widow. From Algonquin Books. Jackie Kennedy, who liked Billings for 'I never could figure out why Ethel would let Lem have such an intimate relationship,' he once declared. '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. To virtually attend a service live 'We had a couple of calls from Jackie - "How's my nephew doing?" at the Manhattan advertising firm Lennen & Newell. Given that Billings was a heavy-drinking In her memoir, published eleven years after the first Kennedy assassination, she wrote that Billings had 'remained Jack's lifelong close friend, confidante, sharer in old memories and new experiences . This was at the end of their final presidential debate at Hofstra University in New York in October, 2008. Abruptly, she stands and gives us two quick waves and then, as she jogs to the passenger side, comes briefly ablaze in the headlights. Her knees are drawn protectively to her chest, and there's something quite exposed about her. 'He was coming up and he was taking Bobby out to dinner and things like that. ', White House visitor: Billings often spent the night at the White House, which upset Jackie Kennedy. "Because of him," Lem Billings once said of President Kennedy, "I was never lonely" Because Jack had no intention of ever being a faithful husband. Bobby Kennedy Jr's surrogate father was JFK's gay best friend Kirk Lemoyne (Lem) Billings. Bobby's next school on his difficult road to a high school diploma was Pomfret, which was having its own troubles. Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. Lem Billings and John F Kennedy were practically inseparable in prep school. Never-before-seen footage captures JFK on vacation months before JFK's Best Friend Lem: Transcript | JFK Library 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. Jack and Lem's Excellent European Adventure, Summer 1937 I mutter something on the order of yes, I must be, and she smiles. Miss Bouvier is a destination. Fanning, a self- described wild child at the time, recalled Bobby's visits to the pit, which he had witnessed, as 'grotesque. He was also a trustee of the Kennedy Library at Harvard. She might be a cashier at the Montelle Pharmacy or Finland's deputy chief of mission, and you won't know until you've pulled up in front of her apartment building and seen her tottering through the front gate, a blonde in a crew-neck cardigan or a brunette in a bullet bra, and it's always the latter who raises her hand for you to kiss and the former who comes at you straight on like an encyclopedia salesman, and whoever it is remains "Miss" in our conversation until such time as the business is consummated, at which point she devolves into her component parts. But as I began to research him, I realized he was also very good friends with Jackie," the novelist says. Jackie, I imagine, is now asking the name of Bobby's daughter or wondering if Eunice will be there and which one is Pat? Suddenly she became angry at Bobby, ordered him below deck, literally beat him with a hairbrush, and once again ordered him to get out of her life. to the arrival of the Mayflower and were ardent abolitionists who championed the A wider smile than I would have guessed possible. And Bobby was sort of always unkempt.'. 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. Kirk Lemoyne Billings (1916-1981) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree By easy degrees, she turns around and bestows on me a fuller version of that first smile. Take a look inside Dublin's most stylish townhouse, Number 31. I took drugs with him. Featuring interviews with Ben Bradlee, Gore Vidal, Ted Sorenson, friends, family, and many . 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. Lem Speer - BILLINGS, Montana , Smith Downtown Funeral Chapel 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.'. 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.'. Anyone can read what you share. This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. The mother of the house, Joanne 'Joey' Brode became a virtual surrogate mother to Bobby who notes years later, 'Ethel didn't even call Bobby on his birthday. As depicted in Netflix's The Crown, Queen Elizabeth II did actually host President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jackie Kennedy at Buckingham Palace in 1961. The martyred widow had taken out her anger and frustration on an easy and available target - her third-born, her late husband's namesake, Bobby Jr., who was a behavior problem even before his father's tragic death. ', Another classmate, Brian Carroll, remembered 'this odd character' Billings, who was always on campus fawning over Bobby: '"Bobby, are you eating? Remembering JFK's Bond with His Boyhood Best Friend, Who Never Got Over . University until Kennedy withdrew for medical reasons. Enter your email below to have our funeral service notifications delivered to you. finances. In the spring of 1972, with graduation approaching, Bobby took the SAT college board exam, and filled out his application for college. Did OJ Simpson's Son Jason Kill Nicole Brown & Ron Goldman? at a General Shoe store, Emerson Drug Company VP, and an advertising executive By Sydney Taylor Written on Nov 06, 2021. PDF Looks like JFK was Gay - mileswmathis.com Copyright 2022 by Louis Bayard. Kirk LeMoyne " Lem " Billings (April 15, 1916 - May 28, 1981) was an American businessman known for his close and long-time friendship with John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family. Lem also worked for JFK in the West Virginia and Wisconsin primaries had no problem with his eye sight and saw action in North Africa. "Jack and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship" Kennedy knew Billings was in love with him (Billings declared his love and was rejected by Kennedy) and Kennedy liked that, the attention and knowing the power he has over billings also his wife Jackie Kennedy hated Billings and hated that he and . She reportedly had a love-hate relationship with her husband's best friend. Published in The Elkhart Truth from Feb. 20 to Feb. 21, 2023. Of the Kennedys, only Bobby's uncle Ted had shown up at Millbrook to see how his nephew was doing. She never visited.'. Find the obituary of Lem Speer (1928 - 2021) from Billings, MT. I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another.". 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." '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. ', 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.