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Tom Chaney: Sept. 9, 2007: Jack & Lem OF WRITERS and THEIR BOOKS: Book review: Jack and Lem: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship By Tom Chaney Most of us who are over fifty years old remember exactly where we were and what we were doing about noon on Friday, November 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was murdered. I recall that I was supervising an in-class essay project in my noon writing class for Baylor University freshmen on the third floor of the Armstrong Browning building in Waco, Texas. A colleague called me to her office next door where the radio was playing softly. "The President has been shot!" Several of us huddled around the radio while my class scribbled away -- unaware of the tragedy unfolding just one hundred miles north. When class was over, I shared the news of the shooting and the further word that the President was not expected to live. While our world was turned topsy-turvy never to completely right itself, there was one man whose devastation was complete. LeMoyne Billings was walking back to his Manhattan office after lunch, just before 2:00 p.m., when he noticed a muted disturbance in the streets about him. As he walked through the doors to the lobby he found total chaos. "A familiar face appeared in front of Lem and said, 'I'm so sorry about the president.'" In such a manner did John F. Kennedy's closest friend for thirty years learn of his death. On his way to St. Patrick's Cathedral to pray, Lem's thoughts were not for his own grief alone, but for the entire Kennedy clan into whose arms he had been enfolded some thirty years before. Lem Billings and Jack Kennedy met in 1933 at Choate School for Boys. At Choate they were inseparable companions in academics and mischief. Lem's attraction for Jack included a sexual element. Jack rejected the advance but not the deep affection of friendship. In 1937 they traveled Europe together as the continent lurched toward war. For a time they attended the same college. They were together in the same car on December 7, 1941, when they learned of Pearl Harbor. During World War II they kept in constant touch with each other. After the war Lem was at Jack's side during his successful races for both House (1946) and Senate (1953). Lem was Jack's frequent guest in the White House and at the various Kennedy homes. Finally, we have a study of the strong friendship between these two radically different men. David Pitts has written a well researched analysis of that friendship from the first meeting at Choate through the death of President Kennedy and beyond. Jack and Lem: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship [Carroll & Graff, 2007] makes use of extensive material in the Kennedy archives as well as interviews with several generations of Kennedys. Lem's role was not political. It was one of "liberating friendship." According to Eunice Kennedy Shriver, "I think that's what Lem did for President Kennedy. President Kennedy was a completely liberated man when he was with Lem." The differences were great. Lem was the scion of a professional protestant family, pioneers in medicine and racial tolerance, who had suffered in the great depression; Jack was the grandson of Irish Catholic immigrants who had suffered discrimination and had achieved great wealth by the time of the sons' meeting at Choate. Jack was interested in politics; Lem became an advertising executive. Jack was extremely fond of women; Lem was homosexual. Yet the relationship endured. The writer Gore Vidal who knew them both described the relationship. "Jack was charismatic from the age of fourteen on. Everyone wanted to be his buddy. Jack and Lem got to be roommates I think by accident at Choate, and suddenly Lem was his slave." Eunice Shriver puts it in a different perspective. "Lem was always an equal to Jack. In friendship, you must have an equal amount of affection and respect for one another, and they had that." Until his death in 1981 Lem continued to be a welcome member of the Kennedy clan. He played the role of surrogate parent/uncle/friend to a second generation of the family -- especially to John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, Jr. A careful reading of sources in any serious account of the life and times of the Kennedy family will reveal many references to Lem as a source of information. Yet David Pitts provides us with the first careful study of this personal side of Jack Kennedy and his close friend. Because of Pitts' careful research and good writing our picture of Kennedy and his time is clearer and less mythical. Tom Chaney can be found telling stories, smoking pipe-weed, and occasionally selling books at THE BOOKSTORE, Box 73, 111 Water Street, Horse Cave, KY 42749. Phone 270-786-3084. Email: Tom Chaney bookstore@scrtc.com. Click here for The Bookstore. This story was posted on 2007-09-09 11:06:23
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Have comments or corrections for this story? Use our contact form and let us know. More articles from topic Tom Chaney: Of Writers and Their Books:
Tom Chaney: Sept. 2, 2007: The Shape Shifter Tom Chaney: August 19, 2007: Robert Penn Warren Tom Chaney: August 14, 2007, Lincoln Tom Chaney: August 8, 2007: Robert B. Parker Tom Chaney. July 29, 2007. on A.B. Guthrie, Jr. Tom Chaney, July 22, 2007: Roma Tom Chaney: July 15, 2007. Missing Mountain Tom Chaney: Sept. 24, 2007: The new canary Tom Chaney. July 8, 2007. Ward Just Tom Chaney. July 1, 2007: On greatest novel View even more articles in topic Tom Chaney: Of Writers and Their Books |
 
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