The Kennedy Family Album

"The Kennedy Family Album," with text by Linda Corley and photographs by the late Bob Davidoff is, as you might expect, beautiful. And while some of the photos are familiar, the majority are not and genuinely reveal the warmth, humor, pride and dignity of America's former First Family attending social events, at work, at home, and at play.

The book is divided into seven chapters: 1. The Rose of Palm Beach; 2. Camelot by the Sea; 3. A Town in Mourning; 4. The Onassis Years; 5. Sun, Sail and Ski; 6. The Beach House; and 7. Future Generations.

The photos span a period beginning in 1959 when West Palm Beach photographer Mr. Davidoff, then with United Press International, was covering the opening of the Royal Poinciana Playhouse. His photos of Rose Kennedy at the opening were printed in the Palm Beach Daily News and Mrs. Kennedy was impressed and pleased. She instructed her social secretary to locate Mr. Davidoff's phone number and personally called. That was the beginning of a friendship that lasted decades and a relationship that gave Mr. Davidoff incredible access. Eventually he would even travel with the family to Hyannis Port.

There are the photos you would expect — a bejeweled Rose Kennedy crowned with a tiara attending the 1976 Red Cross Ball at The Breakers with Estee Lauder, President and Mrs. Kennedy deplaning from Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, and the Kennedys aboard the presidential yacht, the Honey Fitz. But there are the unexpected as well — Caroline Kennedy in cutoffs with her grandmother, a tousled-headed, 12-year-old John Kennedy Jr. fishing, and the last photos taken of the family in 1993 when they sold the beach house.

The text by Linda Corley, an Emmy-winning producer/reporter for WPBT — Channel 2 in Miami, shares anecdotes about the Kennedys drawn from Mr. Davidoff's experiences that truly makes the book come alive. In November 1963, for instance, JFK flew to Florida to watch the launch of a Polaris missile at (then) Cape Canaveral. His real purpose was to meet with Florida Democrats to tell them Palm Beach would be headquarters for his re-election campaign. As Ms. Corley writes, late in the afternoon, Mr. Davidoff followed the motorcade to the airport. "As Kennedy approached the plane. . .I (Mr. Davidoff) raised my hand in a farewell wave, still clicking away. And with a big smile upon his face he returned the gesture and said 'see you in a couple of weeks.'" Four days later, President Kennedy flew to Texas.

But more than the photos and the personal anecdotes, the book reminds us of a much simpler, happier time when we weren't five years into a war, when the stock market wasn't tanking, and when hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of American homes weren't being foreclosed. In many ways, it was truly the age of Camelot.