Born in Los Angeles, CA, Gonzalez was raised in the nearby suburb of Gardena.
Lee played on an Amateur Athletic Union basketball team the summer after his freshman year of high school and became friends with Steven Hester Jr., a high school student from Inglewood attending the private Junípero Serra High School in Gardena, California.
Sandy Reed (died February 5, 2004) was a track announcer with Ascot Park in Gardena, California, and the Riverside International Raceway in Riverside, California.
Bud Houser (Lemuel Clarence Houser; September 25, 1901 in Winigan, Missouri – October 1, 1994 in Gardena, California) was an American field athlete.
Jean Pierre Daguerre (1856-1911), a native of Hasparren, France, came to Los Angeles in 1874 with the French Basque Amestoy family and worked on the Amestoy's ranch near Gardena.