Brenda Lou Gabel

Brenda Lou Gabel, age 84, of Janesville, Wisconsin, passed away peacefully on Monday, September 22, 2025 at Mulberry Campus in Whitewater, Wisconsin, after a lengthy illness.

Brenda was born on July 20, 1941 in Madison, West Virginia, the only child of William and Sylvia (Price) Parks.  She grew up in Madison within the extended Price family that owned and settled a local landmark, Price Mountain.  She graduated from Scott High School there in 1959 and went on to attend secretarial school in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Her rural background was a substantial part of her identity, as she proudly described herself as a country girl even after decades of living in Cincinnati and its suburbs.  She was employed there for approximately a decade at F.W. Dodge, a well-known publishing company that eventually was absorbed by McGraw-Hill, and then for eighteen years at the Cincinnati branch of the American Automobile Association (AAA), where she started as an administrative assistant and eventually worked her way up to a management position as Director of Staff Operations.

Brenda was frequently described by those who knew her well as a generous, giving Christian person who believed in living life according to the Golden Rule.  She loved gardening and interior decorating around the house, helping others in need of assistance, and providing comfort to animals of all types, especially the many cats and dogs that populated her home over the years, with a passion that led her to turn her backyard into a wildlife sanctuary for any creature that needed food and water, at any moment.

Surviving are a son, Timothy Holian, and daughter-in-law Alicia de Gregorio, both of Janesville.  Brenda was preceded in death by her husband, James G. Gabel, her parents, and numerous cousins, aunts, and uncles in West Virginia.

Services are being held privately with the immediate family.

Those who wish to express sympathy are encouraged to consider a memorial to a preferred animal-based charity or shelter, or to an organization dedicated to Alzheimer’s and dementia research.