Lem Billings - Kennedy Administration

Kennedy Administration

In 1961, Billings declined Kennedy's offer to appoint him the first head of the Peace Corps or director of a new agency to promote tourism, the U.S. Travel Service. He later said: "I realized that I did not want to work for the president–because I felt it would change our relationship." One historian speculates that Billings preferred to avoid a security check. In September 1961, he accepted an appointment to the board of trustees of the planned National Cultural Center, which later became the Kennedy Center. The next year, Kennedy named him to a board to plan America's participation in the New York World's Fair of 1964-5. He represented the President when the alumni association unveiled Kennedy's portrait at Choate in May 1963.

Billings visited the White House for most weekends during the Kennedy Administration. When a butler commented on the fact that Billings was leaving his belongings in one of the third-floor guest rooms, the First Lady replied: "He's been my house guest since I was married." Sometimes he stayed for longer periods. When the First Lady was away, Billings organized White House dinner parties for the President and old friends, and when the President traveled he kept the First Lady company. One presidential aide later said that "some people saw him so much they thought he was the Secret Service." Billings never had a White House pass and said: "Jack and Jackie were so nice about this that I didn't even have to tell them whether I was coming or going." Historian Sally Bedell Smith compared him to Zelig, the character in Woody Allen's film who is always present in the back row at major events. He sat with the President's family at the Kennedy inauguration and walked not far behind his widow at the Kennedy funeral. When the Kennedys arranged small gatherings at the White House, they avoided pairing people they knew did not like one another, like Billings and a few other friends.

The press frequently reported on his presence at Kennedy family events, such as the arrival of the Kennedy children in Washington in February 1961. He accompanied the President to church, launched a kite for the President's daughter Caroline, and delivered pet hamsters to the Kennedy children. He joined the President's entourage for his tours of Europe in both 1961 and 1963. In 1962 he escorted two of the President's sisters, Eunice Shriver and Jean Smith, around Europe for more than 2 weeks. When the Kennedys spent the weekend at Glen Ora, their Virginia estate, Mrs. Kennedy invited Billings to join them more often than the President did. She needed Billings to keep the President company while she went horseback riding.

Billings' role as "first friend" was assessed by many observers at the time and since. Ted Sorensen called him "an admirer–almost a fawning admirer–of his friend." Arthur Schlesinger thought Billings "used to glare at me when we occasionally encountered each other in the company of JFK, and for a time I took this rather personally. Soon I discovered that he glared with equal suspicion at anyone whose friendship with JFK postdated his own." Another said: "Members of the president's staff thought of him as a 'handy old piece of furniture.'"

Most recognized that Billings and Kennedy had been friends from youth and did not question their relationship or Billings presence. Ben Bradlee, a Kennedy friend who worked at Newsweek during the Kennedy Administration, and no friend of Billings, said "they were childhood friends and stayed loyal to each other forever." Billings, he said, "had a natural jealousy. He didn't want to share his friendship with Jack." Gore Vidal, who was banned from the White House after a run-in with Billings, offered various opinions at different times. He described Billings as Kennedy's "Choate roommate and lifelong slave" and "the principal fag at court." He also thought Billings played an important role as an aide to Kennedy, who was often ill or in pain. "He needed Lem Billings to get around–better than a trained nurse" that would have made his political career impossible. He thought Mrs. Kennedy thought Billings "was kind of a nothing....but Jack needed him and she was practical."

Many testify to Billings wit and ability to help the President relax. He once described the Kennedy family's lack of business awareness: "Listening to the Kennedy brothers talk about business was like hearing nuns talk about sex." Billings also served the President as an artistic adviser, selecting scrimshaw for display in the Oval Office and, on one European tour, quickly assembling a selection of artworks to be presented as gifts.

Billings spent less time with the President in the fall of 1963. One of their friends thought "that Jackie was trying to close Lem out." Billings spent the last weekend of October 1963 with the couple, the last time he saw them together. Billings saw the President for the last time when they dined at the White House with Greta Garbo on November 13, 1963.