Photo by: Lacrecia Grubb
By Lisa Morton
81 year young Alice Escobedo has retired from the United States Post Office at Kent with the office closing last Thursday. After 25 years as clerk, Alice will leave about 17 customers and friends who used the Kent facility and services. After working with Alice personally, I can honestly say that she will be a friendly face greatly missed by her customers. Her dedication and loyalty to her work is unsurpassed.
The town, once called Antelope, was founded in the early 1890s with a Post Office granted in 1893 and by 1914 when mail was transferred and snatched from a moving train in a catcher pouch. The population was a thriving 25 persons. The population doubled in the mid-1920s and remained at that level for 40 years. The post office was reported closed in 1960 for a time.
Becky Hernandez, Strategic Communications Specialist with the USPS offered the following statement regarding the Kent Post Office: Beginning May 10, 2019, Kent CPU box holders may pick up their mail at the Van Horn Post Office, located at 603 W. Broadway St., Van Horn, TX 79855. The Postal Service apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause. The relocation of the mail will not require customers to change their address; however, they will have to obtain new P.O. Box keys. The Van Horn Post Office is open Monday through Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and closed for lunch from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. As an added convenience, the P.O. Box lobby is open 24 hours a day for mail pick-up once new keys have been issued.
