Queer Places:
Choate Rosemary Hall, 333 Christian St, Wallingford, CT 06492, Stati Uniti
Canterbury School, 101 Aspetuck Ave, New Milford, CT 06776, Stati Uniti
Noble and Greenough School, 10 Campus Dr, Dedham, MA 02026, Stati Uniti
Harvard University (Ivy League), 2 Kirkland St, Cambridge, MA 02138
Dexter School, 20 Newton St, Brookline, MA 02445, Stati Uniti
Edward Devotion School, 345 Harvard St, Brookline, MA 02446, Stati Uniti
Princeton University (Ivy League), 110 West College, Princeton, NJ 08544
Riverdale Country School, 5250 Fieldston Rd, Bronx, NY 10471, Stati Uniti
Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia 22211, Stati Uniti
Kirk
LeMoyne "Lem" Billings (April 15, 1916 – May 28, 1981) was a close and
long-time friend of President John F. Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963) and the Kennedy family. Billings
was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a
campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid.
Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he sometimes acted as
escort for several of the Kennedy women. Billings served with
Sargent Shriver as a trustee for the Kennedy family trusts.
Friends from the 1970s confirmed that Billings was homosexual, but not open
to discussing it.[49]
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."[40]
At the same time, he admitted that no one ever expressed the idea aloud during
Kennedy's White House years.[50]
Red Fay, a friend of the President from his World War II service, said of
Billings: "I didn't see anything overtly gay about him; I think he was
neutral."[51]
One historian wrote that after the 1963 assassination Billings was: "probably
the saddest of the Kennedy 'widows'."[52]
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. Otherwise he attended without
female accompaniment.[53]
Some historians believe that Billings expressed his sexual interest in
Kennedy in writing in 1934 and that Kennedy rebuffed his advances.[54]
Kennedy knew Billings had rightly been accused of homosexual behavior by a
fellow Choate student during their years there.[55]
Charles L. Bartlett, a journalist who introduced Kennedy to
Jacqueline Bouvier[56]
and friend of both Billings and Kennedy, described their relationship: "Lem
was a stable presence for Jack. Lem's raison d'être was Jack Kennedy. I don't
think it's true that he did not have views of his own, as some have said. He
had a very independent mind. He had interests of his own that Jack didn't
necessarily share. He certainly didn't have the same interest in politics and
women that Jack had."[57]
Though Gore Vidal thought Billings was "absolutely nobody," he also believed
"it was a good idea that Jack had somebody he could trust like that around
him." He believed Billings loved Kennedy.[43]
"Jack made a big difference in my life," Billings said. "Because of him, I was
never lonely. He may have been the reason I never got married."[58]
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Princeton University, NJ
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- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lem_Billings#References