Captivated by her obituary" There?s so much more to know
Frances Gabe was, tragically, not a household name when she passed away in December of 2016. However, her New York Times obituary published this week quickly went viral, putting the woman who designed, patented, and built a self-cleaning house back in the zeitgeist. Gabe was the original smart home pioneer.
The story is essential reading, as is a second story just about her patent, showing her original drawings laced with spray nozzles and air jets. But if you, like me, couldn?t get enough of Gabe?s spunky real talk about our domestic future, here is a rabbit hole of reading on her triumphant invention, which, depending on the story, was spurred on by either a stubborn drip of fig jam or angels which visited her after her divorce. This was not the first time the New York Times had published a story on Gabe?which, like so much else in this woman?s life, was not her given name, but a carefully engineered improvement. As the obituary notes, during the ?80s and ?90s she had a brief but legitimate brush with fame, appearing on the Phil Donahue Show, Ripley?s Believe it or Not, and in Erma Bombeck?s column. A model of her invention was also placed on display at the Women's Museum in Dallas (it?s now at the Hagley Museum in Delaware).

Hagley Museum
A model of Gabe?s house, which was acquired by the Hagley Museum in Delaware.

A 1982 profile in People magazine offers Gabe?s feminist take ...