lem billings funeral

It was pretty clear he had some intravenous drug use back then, and he was the only person we knew who did.'. Jack and Lem explores the enduring friendship between John F. Kennedy and Kirk Lemoyne Billings (aka "Lem"). 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,. They both took drugs. 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. 'Sometimes I answered the phone and I would hear her wispy voice, and then I would get my husband to talk to her.'. She never was here.' Quirk had met Billings in the mid-Forties when both were volunteers in Jack Kennedy's first congressional campaign. At fourteen and fifteen, Bobby was proving his bad-boy bona fides with Jesse Pinkman zeal. Doesn't she hear the car's tires on the gravel? Born 15 Apr 1916 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, United States. Quirk immediately pegged Billings as gay, noting his 'high, screechy laugh,' and 'high nasal whine of a voice.' Kennedy was unwell through much of his childhood, beginning with a near-deadly case of scarlet . Introduction: My name is Rubie Ullrich, I am a enthusiastic, perfect, tender, vivacious, talented, famous, delightful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you. was running for President. In the spring of 1972, with graduation approaching, Bobby took the SAT college board exam, and filled out his application for college. 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. Of course, that gave most ofus the thought - does this guy have a job other than caring for Bobby? Hidden away high up on a bookshelf was a small bronze bust of his father. In May 1981, as Bobby was about to marry his first wife, Emily Black, 65-year-old Lem Billings suddenly died of a heat attack in his sleep, Shortly before he went to bed he got drunk, started to cry and told a friend, 'I made a terrible mistake. I say. And it was pretty common, of course in those days and that culture, for men not to be that way.". I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another.'. Her general lilt, as best I can tell, is interrogative, but why should that be a surprise? While the Kennedy family had accepted Billings into their inner circle because of his tight friendship with JFK, Ethel Kennedy's family, the scandalous Republican Skakels of Greenwich, Connecticut, weren't so accepting. A startled Kennedy responded to the note by saying, Please don't write to me on toilet paper anymore. Bobby Kennedy Jr. read the eulogy. RELATED:Jeffrey Epstein's Relationship With Princess Diana Explored In New Book. 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.' ], 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.. 'Haggard, tired' Ethel was ready for some calm. 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. By the middle of Bobby's second year at Millbrook, around January 1970, he was placed on a secret short list of students considered too difficult to remain enrolled. ', Another classmate, Brian Carroll, remembered 'this odd character' Billings, who was always on campus fawning over Bobby: '"Bobby, are you eating? ', 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. Enter your email below to have our funeral service notifications delivered to you. '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. Billings and. 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. to Frederic Tremaine Billings, a prominent physician and Romaine LeMoyne (direct He is survived by a brother, Dr. F. Tremayne Billings, and a sister, Lucretia Billings Fisher. 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. 'We had a couple of calls from Jackie - "How's my nephew doing?" I'm not that kind of boy.'. The eyes even wider. Naval Reserve and served in the South Pacific eventually His goal was acceptance at Harvard, which was virtually guaranteed, so many Kennedys before had gone there. through his life. David Pitts, the author of Jack and Lem: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship, told him: Lem was a gay man and he had a 14-year-old, good-looking kid living in his house with him and there had been rumors because of that. Lem and Jack first met at Choate Rosemary Hall in 1933 when Lem was 17 and Jack was 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. In his second year at Millbrook, Bobby began boasting that he was doing certain drugs intravenously - shooting up, like any street junkie. ', 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. Billings had actually fallen in love with Bobby as he had fallen in love with Bobby's uncle Jack when they had become close chums while working together on the Choate [their prep school] yearbook. . Miss Bouvier is a destination. The hearing, lasting less than a half-hour, was held in private. 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. He possessed a 'high, screechy laugh' and a 'high, nasal whine of a voice' that, according to Quirk, 'instantly tabbed him as gay.'. "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. Billings had once told Bobby that when. Gore Vidal, the writer who claimed he viewed homosexuality as normal as heterosexuality, disparaged the JFK-Billings relationship during the Kennedy administration. at a General Shoe store, Emerson Drug Company VP, and an advertising executive Nature rushes forth, and the car dealers and the Hot Shoppes fall away before dogwoods and tulip trees, tatters of forsythia. Please consult your doctor before taking any action. In his will he left his Manhattan home to Bobby. 'Bobby wasn't just a pothead. Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want to remind everyone of that today. But we speed past all those destinations before steering up Old Dominion Drive. He noted that everywhere Jack went, Billings was sure to follow, like a puppy dog. I'm sure there were moments where they drew aside together and talked about this problem called Jack Kennedy because he was a problem for a young woman that was looking for love and attachment.". Lem also worked for JFK in the West Virginia and Wisconsin primaries a year so that he and Kennedy could graduate from Choate together in 1935," Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him my sec Lem Billings. What if Jacqueline Bouvier had chosen differently? Published in The Elkhart Truth from Feb. 20 to Feb. 21, 2023. And I think Billings had a way of editing things - painting the picture of Bobby's performance smoother than it really was. As George Terrien, Ethel's brother-in-law declared, 'Everyone knew Lem was queer - the Kennedys, the Skakels, everyone.'. Find the obituary of Lem Speer (1928 - 2021) from Billings, MT. Kirk LeMoyne Billings, a retired advertising executive and a friend of President John F. Kennedy, died Wednesday at his Manhattan apartment. It only got worse with the drugs. Clarendon? Try our online preplanning tool. 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. JAMIE RICHARDSON: John F. Kennedy had no shortage of people who considered themselves friends of the 35th president. JFK's Best Friend Lem: Transcript. Still, the Kennedy clan accepted even welcomed Lem Billings into their exclusive inner-circle, practically adopting him, and he became a part of the family. dachshund they named Dunker but had to give him up because of Jack's allergies. 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. Even when Bobby was invited to weekend lunches at the Bontecou estate, it was Billings who accompanied him. 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. I mean, she doesn't look like she belongs there any more than I do, and I briefly wonder if she's a housemaid or a nanny, taking her one allotted evening out. "And he also played a very important role in the courtship between Jackie Bouvier and Jack Kennedy. "Yesterday was Jack's birthday. 'There was no gnashing of teeth and sobbing in the context of his leaving. 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.'. Jacqueline Kennedy was reportedly unhappy about her husband and Billings' three decade long relationship. Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want to remind everyone of that today. 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. Then, when Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, his wife Ethel Skakel had Billings act as the surrogate father to her son Bobby Jr. Heide Knop. 11:10 EDT 13 Oct 2015 Jerry Oppenheimer is a New York Times bestselling author who has written two books about the Kennedys. 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. While the 35th president has been legendarily known as a womanizer who frequently cheated on his wife, Oppenheimer alleges that JFK's three-decades-long relationship with his former prep school. , Did President Kennedy meet the Queen of England? I thought, anything goes with this guy. New York City, taking lunch from his job at Lennen & Newell. 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. Young Jfk. Lem P. Speer, 93, died peacefully in his home on November 20, 2021. But was reportedly upset that her husband spent so much time with him, and that he often stayed overnight at the White House. '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. Initially, Bobby's dorm room with his first roommate had become a veritable shrine to Bobby's father. 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. "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. for inventing '50s fad drink Fizzies for the Emerson Drug Company. reason I never got married.". 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. 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. "I think she went into this thinking that she was getting the conventional husband, even though her own father was a complete philanderer and she knew that," Bayard says. 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 . It just reeks of arrogance, but I did not experience Bobby as arrogant.'. 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. Quirk immediately pegged Billings as gay, noting his "high, screechy laugh," and "high nasal whine of a voice.". "And who should that be?". See the article in its original context from. The pair had a three-decades long friendship that some have speculated may have also included a romantic affair. Lem married Rolla Jean Auer on September 17, 1950. "He also reveals that there was this crucial moment," says Bayard. 'Rob' Bierregaard Jr., who later went on to teach ornithology at the University of North Carolina, recalled, 'Next to the school there was a cow pit where the local dairy farmers threw their dead cows, and it was full of rats. This page is created to honor his memory and is dedicated to his family and friends. As they became close, Billings confided that his relationship with Kennedy was, in fact, sexual, to a point. 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. Share your favorite stories with other history buffs in the IrishCentral History Facebook group. quoted from the book: "Jack made a big difference in my life," Beyond the senator, young Bobby's aunt Jackie had inquired about his welfare but never visited.'. 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. Published online July 6, 2017. A falconer, Bobby kept a pigeon-size sparrow hawk that flew loose in the small room. 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. '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. Featuring interviews with Ben Bradlee, Gore Vidal, Ted Sorenson, friends, family, and many others . He's gone. Writer Gore Vidal once called Billings the chief f****t at Camelot and said Kennedy felt quite comfortable in the company of homosexuals as long as they were smart enough to hold his interest.. 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 . The first lady, Jackie, had something of a love-hate relationship with Billings. Billings and Kennedy took Pitts said. 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. This is one of the questions Louis Bayard raises in his upcoming novel Jackie & Me, which will be published by Algonquin Books in June 2022. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. Mind you, there's nothing in that honorific Miss to signify a lady of distinction. 11 Strict Rules That Elon Musk Makes His Girlfriends & Wives Follow, Justin Bieber Suspected As The Father Of Kourtney Kardashian's Son Reign (Instead Of Scott Disick), Why Kate Moss Was 'Scared' & 'Couldn't Get Out Of Bed For Weeks' After Working With Mark Wahlberg. In Lem, Jack found a confidant and caretaker; Jack was frequently ill while at Choate, but Lem kept his spirits high . 'We never saw Ethel on the campus again. '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. Billings said. at the Manhattan advertising firm Lennen & Newell. Her knees are drawn protectively to her chest, and there's something quite exposed about her. Lem married Rolla Jean Auer on September 17, 1950. with remote attendance, or to view the service at alater time, all you need to do is click on the service, scroll down to the bottom of the obituary, and click on the links provided. 10 Lem Billings Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images Images Images Creative Editorial Video Creative Editorial FILTERS CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO 10 Lem Billings Premium High Res Photos Browse 10 lem billings stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. 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. Because it was the boys' first offense, they were placed on probation. He's taken over."'. He was kind of sinister. The president is seen teeing off, among his guests joining him being Press Secretary Pierre Salinger, lifelong friends Lem Billings and Charles Spalding, and British Ambassador Sir David Ormsby-Gore. 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.. JFKPP-001-012-p0005. He was 65 years old. ', By "The result is this book, which looks at Jackie before she was Jackie the Jackie that we all think we know. descendant of John LeMoyne, a French physician and Dr. Francis LeMoyne, an abolitionist I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity. White House. Knowing the kind of intimate relationship that he had with the president, advisers were concerned about political repercussions, and even blackmail. Billings Funeral Home, in Elkhart IN, offers personalized and compassionate service for everyone who walks through our doors. 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. It was Bobby Kennedy Jr. who gave the eulogy. Lem had several jobs including selling Coca-Cola dispensers to drugstores, working 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. President Jimmy Carter broke royal protocol by kissing the Queen Mother on the lips during his visit in 1977. He may have been the His latest book, The Kardashians: An American Drama, will be published in September. 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. He was also plagued by ill health. Billings was buried near his mother's grave in his hometown of Pittsburgh. Genealogy profile for Lem Billings Kirk LeMoyne Billings (1916 - 1981) - Genealogy Genealogy for Kirk LeMoyne Billings (1916 - 1981) family tree on Geni, with over 230 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. Only a very liberal school [like Pomfret] that needed money would take him.'. The biographer Sally Bedell Smith, referred to Billings in one of her books as 'probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows.'. Gore Vidal, the writer who claimed he viewed homosexuality as normal as heterosexuality, disparaged the JFK-Billings relationship during the Kennedy administration. Billings kept the letters JFK wrote to him between 1934 and 1939, and he donated the entire collection to the Library in the 1970s. The funeral will be held in Pittsburgh. 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. And, for once, Billings, who serves as the story's narrator, has as big a voice as the Kennedys. A group home in Fort Myer, maybe. Find the obituary of Lem Speer (1928 - 2021) from Billings, MT. Billings Funeral Home. Jack for his health reasons and Lem for his eye sight. 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 experiencesHe has really been part of 'our family' since that first time he showed up at our house as one of 'Jack's surprises. Son of Frederick Tremaine Billings and Romaine Elizabeth (LeMoyne) Billings. Were I to search his facehis souldown to the most granular level, I would find no clue, for there is perhaps none to find. education of free black Americans after the Confederate States of America was But the one thing that struck me even at that tender age was that I felt Lem was just obsessed with Bobby. 'I thought, that's the kind of s**t heavy drug users pull. /. During their wedding in Greenwich, Connecticut, Ethels brother knocked Billings down the aisle at the church. Mr. Billings and Mr. Kennedy. One of the leaders of the group, Rob O. By 'We couched it in terms of what was best for Bobby. 'He was coming up and he was taking Bobby out to dinner and things like that. The point is there's no way of knowing what they're saying, and Jack sometimes gets cross if I talk too much with his dates (unless I'm doing something useful like showing them the door). Try again later. 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 . He accepted it.' That kind of thing,' recalled the widow of one of the school's headmasters while Bobby was in attendance. While Billings' missive is long gone, a startled Kennedy responded, 'Please don't write to me on toilet paper anymore. Lem Billings and John F. Kennedy met as teenagers at their Connecticut prep school and remained lifelong friends. Mr. Billings and Mr. Kennedy were roommates at Choate and then at Princeton before Mr. Kennedy transferred to Harvard. In 1942, Lem joined the Ambulance Corps, an organization that Lem Billings (right) was Kennedy's roommate at Choate and Princeton and an usher at his wedding, Spending most weekends at the White House during JFK's presidency, he became known as the "first. If you have recently lost a family member or friend, we hope that you will accept our condolences. Michelotti-Sawyers Mortuary and Crematory is a locally and independently owned and operated full service funeral home and crematory. Bobby was an edgy, edgy guy. Im not that kind of boy.. 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?". In school JFK and Lem were close. defeated. Kirk LeMoyne Billings was Jack's very best friend from their time at Choate prep school in 1933 to that fateful day in Dallas 1963. We're due at Bobby and Ethel's that night, but Jack instead cuts across Chain Bridge. He refers to virtually all his girls that way. 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. Lem also worked for JFK in the West Virginia and Wisconsin primaries A different side of JFK: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings met atChoate Rosemary Hall and became lifelong friends. Her moods could swing drastically. 2. John F. Kennedy with Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. After Kennedys assassination, Billings was devastated. While on the road, the only person he touched base with was Lem Billings. 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. JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century 1917-1956, 6. 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. ', Jacqueline Kennedy was reportedly unhappuabout her husband and Billings' three decade long relationship. Billings would later spend nights in the White House where he had his own room, Schoolboy crush? 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. Anyone can read what you share. You didn't want to get too close to him.'. guest every weekend of my married life." When Bobby Kennedy, 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." The president was famously believed to have affairs during their marriage. The first lady, Jackie, had something of a love-hate relationship with Billings. ', Rose Kennedy, however, had a different, more positive view of Billings. 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.'. After Jack Kennedy's election to the presidency, Billings was a constant presence and overnight guest at the White House. And Bobby was sort of always unkempt.'. Goat's eyes, that's my first churlish thought, or a madwoman's, but maybe that's to forestall the sense that I'm being seen through a wider lens. Quirk alleged thatBilling and Kennedys relationship included oral sex with JFK always being on the receiving end. of adding a fruit flavor to disguise the sodium citrate taste. It was Bobby Kennedy Jr. who gave the eulogy. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he . But the man married to Jackie Kennedy was quietly chided for his compulsive philandering. A planetarium-like darkness, with the two of them swimming like moons. "Oh, yes?" All the Kennedys were very much aware of Billings's sexual preference, or suspected it, accepted it, and welcomed him into their exclusive inner circle - practically adopted him - although the patriarch Joe Kennedy found him annoying at times. (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. As one source told me, 'Young Bobby replaced Jack in Lem's heart of hearts.'. And seated close to Kennedy is his shirtless, tanned and oiled best friend forever, his very gay chum, Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings. Biographer Sally Bedell Smith referred to Billings as probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows., Following the assassination of RFK in 1968, Billings transferred his romantic feeling to Kennedys nephew, Bobby Kennedy Jr, to whom Billings would become a fawning surrogate father and fellow drug user.. ', White House visitor: Billings often spent the night at the White House, which upset Jackie Kennedy. Jack's best friend was Lem, and he would want to remind everyone of that today. 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. 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.