Encino’s 1st Postmaster Dies at 95

Ted Gibson, who served as Encino’s first postmaster and was active for many years in its community affairs, has died at his home in Santa Rosa. He was 95.

A longtime Encino resident who retired to Northern California in the 1980s, Gibson died in his sleep Wednesday, said his grandson, Ernie Harris.

Born Theo Gibson on Oct. 4, 1899 in Bellview, Tex., he settled in California with his family in 1907. While a 17-year-old high school student in Monrovia, Gibson persuaded his parents to let him enlist in the Army following the outbreak of World War I. He served six months in France and was discharged in 1919.

After the war, Gibson finished school and married his former classmate, Frances Tate, in 1921. In June of 1925, they moved to Encino where they ran the community’s first grocery store and service station, according to Josie Hendricks, the Gibsons’ longtime friend.

In 1966, Gibson recalled that the store, situated at the southeast corner of Ventura Boulevard and Oak Park Avenue, was a popular gathering place in the then-small community.

“It was the only spot, regardless of politics,” he told The Times.

After the second Encino Chamber of Commerce was formed in 1936, Gibson served on the board of directors under entertainer Al Jolson, the chamber’s first president. During many years with the chamber, he served as president, vice president, treasurer and secretary.

On April 18, 1938, Gibson was appointed Encino’s first postmaster.

“I called the (postal) inspector and asked what I was supposed to do,” he wrote of his appointment nearly 50 years later. “He said, ‘You open a post office.’ I knew what a stamp was, but little more. I bought two sections of boxes . . . built an office in the rear of our store and opened for business. I paid for everything.”

Gibson served as postmaster until retiring in 1946. He later worked in real estate and was active with his wife in community affairs for many decades.

In the mid-1980s, the Gibsons retired to Santa Rosa. Frances Gibson died in February at age 93.

Survivors do not include any immediate relatives and there will be no services.

Lafferty & Smith Colonial Chapel in Santa Rosa is handling the arrangements. Gibson’s cremated remains will be interred at Oakwood Memorial Park in Chatsworth and memorial donations may be made to the Encino chapter of the Kiwanis Club.