 She graduated from Hunter College in 1934 and earned her law degree from Columbia Law School in 1937 and went to work at her father's law firm.She left her father's law firm in 1944 to marry Dr. Milton Gabel, a United States Army dentist stationed at Fort Hood, Texas.Gabel had her first association with housing in 1955, when she was appointed as general counsel to the Temporary State Rent Commission.