Branham falls in love with his new cadet

Steve Branham might be a two-star retired U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral, but his new granddaughter Emerson Whitney Branham of Virginia Beach, Va., already outranks him. 

Branham and his wife, Assistant to the Town Manager Susan Phillips, were proud new grandparents, placing their “happy dollars” in the pot at the Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key’s May 21 breakfast meeting.

 Asked who the baby in the picture was, Phillips proudly exclaimed, “That’s my granddaughter!”

Branham previously put a ban on Phillips’ designer shoe-buying habit, although that ban has been lifted — sort of.

“He said I couldn’t buy them for myself anymore,” Phillips said. “But he smiled when I came home with our granddaughter’s first pair of designer baby shoes.”