Photo: Courtesy John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston
The founder, editor and publisher ofCigar Aficionadowrote in 1996thatJohn F. Kennedywas “one of the great cigar-smoking statesmen of our time.”
The image is one of many included inThe First Kennedys: The Humble Roots of an American Dynasty, an exploration ofKennedy familyhistory beginning with the future president’s great-grandmotherBridget Murphy Kennedy, who immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland in the 1800s.
The photo of the Kennedy kids was taken on the steps of a beach house in Cape Cod, where P.J. vacationed in the summertime, author Thompson tells PEOPLE.
“Later in life, P.J. became very close with all his grandkids,” Thompson says. “His wife unfortunately died in [1923], but P.J. lived a bit longer and was able to really spend a lot of time with the older grandkids like John and Joe, and loved to visit them at the beach, spend time with them.”
The First Kennedys.Mariner Books
Thompson considers Bridget a “forgotten hero” of the Kennedy family, who overcame intense hardship — including the death of her husband when P.J. was 10 months old — to raise a family, become a businesswoman and put down roots that would grow into an American political dynasty.
“She was clearly powerful, determined and, in her own way, an ambitious woman,” Thompson says.
But it was Bridget’s son — also “overlooked in some ways,” Thompson says — who led the clan into politics.
After starting a saloon business, P.J. became a political organizer in East Boston and eventually served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Senate. That ascent, Thompson says, “was really a key influence on the subsequent generations of Kennedy politicians.”
source: people.com
