At 100, Lee Wesley Gibson has lived, loved and learned.
"I watch him, and I'm amazed," said Loratious Presley III, his 45-year-old grandson "He's an optimist. He's the most positive person I've ever met. He's in good health. He's just a miracle."
Gibson has been labeled a "miracle" because the centenarian, with the twinkle in his eye and slightly mischievous grin, is incredibly spry and alert. He has no ailments, doesn't wear glasses, takes no medication, still drives his own car, and even has a girlfriend, Evelyn Dotson, 83. He's been dating her for six years. (His wife of 76 years, Beatrice A. Gibson, died in 2004).
Gibson is a man of few words, but what he does say speaks volumes.
"I've had a good life," he said during a recent interview. "I had a good job and I raised my family, which is what I wanted to do."
Born May 21, 1910, in Keatchie, La., Gibson is the oldest living Pullman Porter, according to the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum in Chicago. He's been around for every president since William Howard Taft. He's seen Jackie Robinson break the baseball color barrier, and the first man land on the moon. He's lived through the Civil Rights Movement and witnessed inventions ranging from the traffic light to the iPad.
Gibson seems slightly embarrassed about the fanfare he received recently at a Black History Month celebration earlier this year in Hanford, Calif., marking the contributions of the legendary Pullman Porters, who worked on railroads back when they were the primary form of long-distance travel in the U.S.
"I don't know if it's significant," Gibson said. "They say I am the oldest (porter). I don't know. I guess it is."
More than 200 friends and family members greeted Gibson at a more recent birthday party in his honor, on May 21, at The Proud Bird Restaurant in Los Angeles more than 200 of his family members and friends. Gifts and plaques arrived from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the AARP, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, and President Barack Obama.
"I think his wife (Michelle Obama) sent it," said Gibson. "It was great. I voted for him. I think he's doing a good job. I never thought I'd see a Negro president. It was never on my mind that there would be one. Never even thought in those terms. When he won, I was so far out. I don't know what I thought."
A lover of trains since he was a little boy, Gibson said he grew up near railroad tracks, but never dreamed he would actually have a job working on the train.
Being a porter was considered a "good job" for a black man, said Gibson, who worked about 240 hours a month, earning 36 cents an hour when he started.
"The passengers would tip," he recalled. "Most of the money was tips. The railroad put signs up in the cars saying, 'No Tipping Allowed.' But people tipped us anyway.
"They didn't tell, and we didn't either. It wasn't a lot of money, but it was enough for us to get by."
His career began with him loading and unloading passengers, securing baggage, and taking care of the passenger cars. One of his trips would take him from Los Angeles to Caliente, Nev. Other trips took him to Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah; Omaha, Neb.; and Chicago.
"Sometimes we had to go in town and sleep in a rooming house," said Gibson, who added he never experienced racism directly. "It was for coloreds only."
Gibson, who encountered celebrities such as Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong and Kate Smith during his travels, remembers getting nothing but respect from both white and black passengers.
"They would call us porter," said Gibson, who added he has no regrets about how he's lived his life. "I was never disrespected during the time I worked on the trains."
However, Gibson revealed that until he retired in 1974, blacks continued to be assigned separate seats. After he retired things changed — a little.
"Black people either got first seats or the last seats in the coaches," Gibson said. "It was still like that in 1974. No one talked about it, but we knew."
Whenever he wasn't working, Gibson said he stayed at home and took care of his wife and children.
A remarkably agile centenarian, Gibson, who has three children — Gwendolyn Reed, Barbara Leverette and Gibson (his firstborn, Lee W. Gibson Jr., died in 1958) — six grandchildren, 18 great grandchildren, 12 great-great grandchildren and one great-great-great grandchild, is a bit reluctant to discuss his life, the secret to his longevity, or to reflect on the things which move and motivate him as a human being.
"You know too much already," said Gibson, who retired from Union Pacific Railroad in 1974 after 38 years as a Pullman Porter and said he never missed a day of work. "There's no secret. It's living right, eating right and no doctor's medicine. The last time I took medicine was seven or nine years ago. I felt worse when I was taking it. So, the last time I had medicine, I put it in the toilet. Now, I just take Vitamin C."
Gibson is still an avid Dodgers fan. He watches every game unless it's during the time he attends the church he's been going to for 60 years, People's Independent Church of Christ, where he was once a deacon.
Gibson will tell you he's had a full and happy life, which included moving to Los Angeles in 1935, working at the Darco Corp. as a purifying agent, owning Gibson Cleaners, working at H&R Block, starting his own tax company, working at a bar and becoming a personal tailor at the WJ Glover tailor shop.
With all that he's accomplished in his life, Gibson said nothing has brought him more joy than one thing:
"For me, nothing was more important than being a father," Gibson said. "I had four children, and I'm crazy about them."
Gloria Gibson is the youngest of Gibson's children. When she talks about her dad, she actually gushes.
"He was wonderful and is still wonderful and very supportive," she said. "He didn't cuss, fuss or fight. If I was in anything at school, he would come. When I was a flag girl at Centennial High School, he made our uniforms. There were six of us on the team, and he made all of our uniforms.
He would often make her clothes and went with her to pick her wedding dress, she said. He bought her first car.
"When I got shot in 1991 by a double barrel shotgun, he was there," she said. "As a family we always ate together in the kitchen. He was always there unless he was on the road."
Presley said it's easy to talk about his grandfather.
"The best thing about him is that there is this combination of God and being an optimist," he said. "He's simply the best. He taught me how to ride a bike. Took me to baseball games. Taught me how to count. His family orientation is God first, family second. Even as a kid I appreciated who he was."
This Sunday, June 20, is Father's Day.
Gibson said he plans to spend it doing what he loves.
"I've had a marvelous life," he said. "The best way for me to spend Father's Day is at church with my children. There is nothing else I need to do. That's all I need."
Darlene Donloe is a writer for the L.A. Watts Times.
Photos from the L.A. Watts Times.
Read more stories from the L.A. Watts Times »
Leave a comment