Ruby S. Gibson, who loved her family, her country, her neighborhood and every dog she ever met, died October 5 at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica. She was 85. She had been living with daughter Sylvia Phelps and her family on Friends Street for the past 15 years. Born September 17, 1920, to missionary parents in Taiyuan-fu, the capital city of Shansi Province in China, Ruby was the youngest of four children. Her family left China two years later, because of political unrest in the area, and moved initially to Bakersfield, then to various towns across Wisconsin and Michigan as her father pastored in German-speaking churches. Ruby attended Central Bible Institute in Springfield, Missouri, where she met and married Philip Gibson, who had a lifelong desire to become a missionary. Phil and Ruby were missionaries in Mexico City and preparing to go to Argentina in 1944 when their first child, Steve, was born. When Argentina closed its doors to missionaries, the Gibsons returned to Southern California and started the non-denominational Village Church in Burbank. Phil preached while Ruby played the piano, organ and marimba in services, scrubbed church floors, entertained large groups and raised their three children, Steve, Susan and Sylvia. In the early 1950s, the church decided to start Village Christian School, which thrives today in Sun Valley as one of California’s largest private K-12 Christian schools. After Phil died of a heart attack at 45, Ruby worked at Glendale Adventist Hospital as an aide. She soon entered secretarial school and subsequently worked for Standard Armament in Glendale and Pathologists Clinical Lab at Glendale Adventist until her children completed college. In 1980 Ruby began working as bookkeeper for The Phelps Group, a family-owned marketing communications firm, initially located in Burbank. In 2000 she became the company’s first 20-year associate to retire. Living in Pacific Palisades, Ruby was known by those on the Via bluffs as the sweet lady who loved dogs and always had a smile and a wave for anyone who passed by. She was a woman of deep and abiding faith who lived out her beliefs with unfailing integrity, and she never tired of pointing out the beauty in the smallest element of nature. Each fallen leaf and cloud in the sky was appreciated. Ruby is survived by her daughters Susan Jacob (husband Richard) of Laguna Niguel and Sylvia Phelps (husband Joe) of Pacific Palisades; older sisters Erna Jeffrey and Mina Lewis; and nine grandchildren: Philip, Claire, Beth and Mathias Gibson; Andrew, Oliver and Thomas Jacob; and Doug and Emilie Phelps; and her little Shih Tzu buddy Tinkerbell. A memorial service is planned at Village Church in Burbank in late December.
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