Susanne Almond

Susanne Watkins Almond. Her mother was Mary Holland Watkins, the youngest daughter of George Holland and Mary Bannister Holland. Her grandfather, George Albert Holland, came to Phoebus, Virginia in 1921 to teach military science at Hampton Institute. He was a veteran of World War 1, with the 24th Infantry in the Spanish American War at the battle of San Juan Hill. He was also a protégé of Charles Young and was one of the colored officers commissioned a Captain in 1917 at a colored officer training camp in Des Moines, Iowa at the beginning of World War I. Captain Holland retired in August 1921. In 1921-1926, he was an ROTC instructor, YMCA Secretary and Drillmaster at Hampton Institute.

He was married to Mary Bannister and resided at 310 S. Willard Ave in Phoebus. They had six children, Alpha, Naomi, Segunda, Omega, John Clay, and Mary Elizabeth. Segunda graduated from Hampton Institute in 1928. In 1936, John Clay was first African-American to receive the highest rank of Eagle Scout in the history of the Peninsula Council boy scouts. John Clay is now 89 years old and the only living descendant from this generation and still resides in Hampton. Mary Elizabeth had 7 children: Yvonne, Priscilla, Delores, Mary, Barbara, John and Susanne Melba of whom Susanne Melba, Mary, John, and Priscilla still reside in Hampton; and John in Newport News. Omega had only one son, William Hawkins, who resides in Calilfornia.