From 2017: Frances Gabe, Creator of the Only Self-Cleaning Home, Dies at 101

This obituary was originally published on July 19, 2017.

For decades, Frances Gabe did not clean her house, nor did anyone clean it for her. Yet for all that time, it was spotless.

Ms. Gabe, a once-celebrated inventor who died in obscurity late last year, was the creator, and long the sole inhabitant, of the world’s only self-cleaning house.

In January, the only public announcement of Ms. Gabe’s death appeared on the website of The Newberg Graphic, covering the Oregon community where she had long made her home. Spanning barely two dozen words, it gave little more than her death date — Dec. 26, 2016 — and her age, 101.

But between Ms. Gabe’s birth, on June 23, 1915, and her death lay, unheralded, the life of a true American original, equal parts quixotic dreamer and accomplished visionary.

“Locally, she was just the kind of unique person that you often see in these small towns,” Allyn Brown, Ms. Gabe’s former lawyer and a longtime friend, said in a telephone interview last week. “I don’t think anybody really knew her name.”

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Alex Chen