Frances Tate Gibson; Encino Pioneer

Frances Tate Gibson, who with her husband operated Encino’s first grocery store and post office more than 50 years ago, has died at a Santa Rosa hospital. She was 93.

An Encino resident for nearly six decades before she retired to Northern California with her husband, Mrs. Gibson died Thursday of a degeneration of the esophagus, according to a representative of the Sonoma County bureau of vital statistics.

Born in Bakersfield, Mrs. Gibson met her husband, Theo (Ted) Gibson, while attending high school in Monrovia. The couple moved from Monrovia to Encino in 1925. According to Mrs. Gibson’s longtime friend, Josie Hendricks, the couple ran the community’s first grocery store and service station at the corner of Ventura Boulevard and Oak Park Avenue.

In 1938, the Gibsons sold the store’s contents and established Encino’s first post office on the site on April 8 of that year. Mr. Gibson served as the location’s first postmaster until 1946 and later worked in the real estate industry.

During World War II, Mrs. Gibson volunteered at Birmingham Hospital (later Birmingham High School) in Van Nuys. She was also active in numerous clubs and organizations for many years, including the Encino Historical Society, the Encino Women’s Club and the Encino Republican Club. In the mid-1980s, the Gibsons retired to Santa Rosa, Hendricks said.

In addition to her husband of 72 years, Mrs. Gibson is survived by a grandson.

There were no services. Lafferty & Smith Colonial Chapel in Santa Rosa handled the arrangements, and according to Hendricks, Mrs. Gibson’s cremated remains will be interred at Oakwood Memorial Park in Chatsworth. Memorial donations may be made in Mrs. Gibson’s name to the Encino chapter of the Kiwanis Club.