American businessman Kirk LeMoyne (Lem) Billings was BOTD in 1916. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to a socially prominent family who lost much of their fortune during the Great Depression. In 1933, he won a scholarship to Choate, an elite preparatory school in Connecticut, where he became close friends with classmate John F. Kennedy. He quickly became a surrogate member of the Kennedy family, joining them for holidays and social events. He repeated his final year at Choate so he and John could graduate together, and joined John on a trip to Europe in 1937. Billings studied at Princeton University, majoring in art and architecture. Rejected from military service due to poor eyesight, he used his Kennedy connections to join the AFS Ambulance Service, serving in North Africa during World War Two and latterly in the US Naval Reserve. After the war, he earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School and joined an advertising company, going on extended leave to work on John’s 1946 Congress and 1960 presidential campaigns. A regular at every Kennedy event, he was an usher at John’s wedding to Jackie Bouvier and a prominent attendee at John’s inauguration. In 1961, John offered Billings the role of head of the newly-formed Peace Corps. Billings declined, and became a surrogate First Lady, spending most weekends at the White House, joining the board of trustees of the Kennedy Center, organising dinner parties with John in Jackie’s absence, keeping Jackie company at their country home at Glen Ora and advising on art acquisitions for the Oval Office. He was reported to be jealous of John’s other friendships, and reputedly banned Gore Vidal from the White House after a disagreement. After John’s assassination in 1963, Billings was a prominent figure at his funeral, described by one historian as “probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows”. He remained closely associated with the Kennedy family, remaining on the board of the Kennedy Center and related charities, accompanying Jackie to state events and developing a close relationship with John and Jackie’s children. In the late 1960s, he began drinking heavily and using drugs, leading to a temporary estrangement from the Kennedys. Billings was known to be gay, though appears to have had no intimate relationships, stating somewhat cryptically “Jack made a big difference in my life. Because of him, I was never lonely. He may have been the reason I never got married.” Billings died in 1981, aged 65. The posthumous publications of Billings’ diaries and travel journals ignited speculation about the nature of his and John’s relationship. It appears that Billings confessed his attraction to John when they were students, which John politely rebuffed, and that their friendship, while intimate, was not sexual.