The Man Who Was JFK's Best Friend

John F. Kennedy met Lem Billings, who was one year his senior, while working on a yearbook at Choate Preparatory School. The two teens established an instantaneous rapport and reveled in their shared mischievous sense of humor.

John F. Kennedy met Lem Billings, who was one year his senior, while working on a yearbook at Choate Preparatory School. The two teens established an instantaneous rapport and reveled in their shared mischievous sense of humor.

Choate was known as an institution keen on order and tradition. According to the John F. Kennedy Library, he and Billings made a point of pushing the boundaries when it came to breaking rules that they thought were unreasonable and unnecessarily restrictive, such as playing records in the evenings when music was officially meant to be turned off. The pair even established their own club, "The Muckers." The name was taken from the principal's term for troublemakers, and it became a badge of honor among such young men as JFK and Billings.

In 1937, at the start of their 20s, the pair cemented their friendship with a two-and-a-half-month trip around Europe, where they visited such attractions as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, taking silly photographs along the way. Both men became involved in World War II, with JFK entering the U.S. Navy and serving in the South Pacific and Billings signing up as an ambulance driver in North Africa, but the friends stayed in touch throughout the war via mail and were sure to meet up whenever possible.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunB9k21vbnBhZLewtM1mnWajlaO7prDYZpmeq6Ris7O1xKebZqSVonqjtculoKefo2Q%3D

 Share!