Ted Dondanville, the youngest of eight children of Emile Dondanville and Marie Schumacher, was born in San Gabriel, California, August 28, 1910. He grew up in the family home on East Mission Drive. He attended the old San Gabriel Mission grade school, and Alhambra High School. Most of his classmates knew him as Theo, to his teammates on the wrestling team he was Teddy, and to his family he was Ted.

Ted graduated from Alhambra City High School in June 1929 and followed his three older brothers into the auto service business. In 1930 he leased an existing service station at the corner of East Mission Drive and Del Mar in San Gabriel. He later purchased the station and acquired additional land for a tire recapping operation. Thus began Village Tire Service.

On July 25, 1933 Ted married Eleanor Eva Pohl at the San Gabriel Mission. Eleanor, the daughter of Adam Pohl from Austria and Elizabeth Klein from Yugoslavia, was born in Chicago, Illinois, September 20, 1912. She came to California, with her parents, as a teenager in the late 1920s. Ted and Eleanor established their first home at 132 North Ardmore in San Gabriel. Their first child, Theodore Edward, was born in 1934. A daughter Elizabeth Marie, was born in 1936 and a second daughter Carole Ann in 1938.

Shortages during World War II brought difficult times for the tire business, but Village Tire Service survived. Ted Jr. recalls his father driving a truck at some period in the early 1940s. It is likely that he found this necessary to weather the war years. A fire in the back buildings caused the city to bring a stop to the on site recapping operation. Property was acquired on Marengo Avenue in an industrial section of Alhambra and recapping was done off site.

A fourth child Eleanore Louise was born in 1944. The family was outgrowing the house on Ardmore Drive. In 1947 Ted began construction of a home on East Roses Road, in the far north section of San Gabriel. The family moved into the new home just months before the birth of their fifth child, Harold Lee, on June 26, 1948. In March of 1955 Ted had the first of two operations to amputate his right leg due to cancer. Ted Jr. and his wife Betty returned from duty with the U.S. Navy in Puerto Rico, and Ted assumed responsibility for operation of Village Tire Service. In 1959, in order to combine both sales and service under one roof, the business was moved to the corner of Walnut Grove Avenue and Valley Boulevard in Rosemead.

Ted Sr. died May 14, 1966 in San Gabriel Community Hospital. Shortly after his death Eleanor sold the home on East Roses Road and moved to a smaller home on Hermosa Drive. Eleanor died in Methodist Hospital, Arcadia on May 20, 1977. Both are buried at Resurrection Cemetery.

268.1 Theodore Edward Dondanville, 1934 -
born July 2, 1934, Monterey Park, California, married Elizabeth Mary Greenwaldt, on December 19, 1953. Five children: Edward Adam, '55; Michael, '56; Linda, '59; Theodore Joseph, '59; and Steven , '62. In 1999 Ted and Betty gave up their home in Alhambra and moved to a retirement community in Cloverdale, California.

268.2 Elizabeth Marie Dondanville, 1936 -
born March 4, 1936, in Monterey Park, known as Dede, married in San Marino on August 17, 1957. Three children: Wendy Ann, '59; Lisa Marie, 62; and Ken Jr, '71. Moved to Houston in 1969 and returned o California, to Walnut Creek, in 1980. Living in Alamo, California in 2004.

268.3 Carole Ann Dondanville, 1938 -
born January 17, 1938, in Monterey Park, married in San Marino, California on April 6, 1957.Three children: Ronald Scott, '57; Renee Suzanne , '59; and Rodd Stuart, '63. The children were raised in Garden Grove. Retired in 1990 and moved to Lake Havasu City, Arizona where they continue to live in 2004..

268.4 Elenore Louise Dondanville, 1944-
born September 14, 1944, in San Gabriel, married Roy Bruce Wyland, September 5, 1962. Three children: Todd Roy, '63; Eric Jonathan, '65; and Lucinda Louise, '70. Seperated in 1979 and Ellie returned to college and the work place. She married Robert Rae Howie on September 11, 1986. Now living in Paso Robles, California.

268.5 Harold Dondanville, 1948 -
born June 26, 1948, in San Gabriel, married Lynn Matchura.in Glendora on July 18, 1970. Two children: Mark Andrew, '71; and Carrie Lynn, '77.Divorced in September 1982 and Harold moved to San Diego County

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