Jack and Lem

March 19, 2007
Freelance journalist Pitts thoroughly documents the long, intimate association of JFK and Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings. The son of a Pittsburgh physician, Billings first met JFK in the early 1930s at Choate, where they systematically set about violating every campus rule possible. Although Lem was gay, their relationship was evidently always platonic and continued through WWII and after, as Billings pursued a career in advertising while also devoting much energy to advancing Kennedy's political career. Lem became an adored member of the extended Kennedy clan and loomed large in the lives of the children of the martyred Jack and Bobby. Billings also became a much-sought-after source, courted by dozens of Kennedy biographers until his death in 1981—a devotee to the end and somehow incomplete as an individual separate from Jack. Gore Vidal, no friend of Lem's, belittled him, saying, "He's the guy who carries the coat.... He's the guy who runs errands.... To Jack, Lem was a kind of idiot friend." But Pitt, in a well-done first book, insists JFK had "absolute trust in Lem" though their friendship remained an enigma to others.