Max & Marcheta Gabriel

Max Gabriel was born in Spur in 1938 and graduated from high school there. After attending Hardin-Simmons University, he served in the U.S. Army Reserve. He moved to Plainview in 1960 and, along with his older brother Frank and their father, built and operated Gabriel’s Department Store and the Gabriel-Wayland Shopping Center, the first regional shopping center in Hale County. Later, the brothers invested in local farms and developed housing and office buildings in Plainview’s La Mesa Subdivision. They sold the store in 1990.

Marcheta Wood, a native of O’Donnell, Texas, graduated from high school there, earned a degree from Texas Tech, and then worked as a home economist for the Texas Extension Service in Andrews and Hale Counties. In 1967 she married Max Gabriel and later worked with him in building and property management. She also became a real estate agent. They have a daughter and two grandchildren.

Max and Marcheta took part in many local civic, educational, and religious causes. Max was active in the Chamber of Commerce and Lions Club. Both are members of the First Baptist Church, where Max is a deacon and Marcheta was a Sunday School teacher and frequent committee member. Marcheta is a member and former president of Omega Delphin Study Club, the Junior League, and the PTA. She conducts etiquette seminars for graduating students at West Texas A&M.

Max and Marcheta are donors to Wayland Baptist University, where Max is a longtime trustee and past chairman of the board, and to Covenant Hospital, where he served on the board and chaired the remodeling committee. They have endowed a scholarship in their names at Wayland. Max was named Plainview’s Man of the Year in 1989.