Len going the wrong way, headed straight for Debbie. Their headlights met before they did, but the pair avoided impact to enter the restaurant at the same time. Len looked at Debbie and said, “Today is my lucky day” and asked if he could buy her a drink. “We went to the bar and I guess the rest is history,” Gaby said. A seasoned businessman, Len jumped right into helping Debbie with her work, putting up “For Sale” signs and installing lock boxes. “He said, ‘This job is way too hard. Let’s do something that’s much easier,’” Gaby said. The pair married and decided to return to the business Len knew best: mattresses. “We analyzed a bunch of markets and Arizona was a bright, shining star,” Gaby said. “For every two people who moved out of Arizona, three people moved in.” Len and Debbie visited Arizona in 1996 and opened their first Sleep America store in a Phoenix strip mall in 1997. The two made a great team. Len served as the company’s CEO while Debbie was president and spokesperson. Her sweet smile and Southern drawl were mainstays on Valley airwaves for years. “Everybody needs a mattress and I guarantee you, if you didn’t have one, you wanted to go see Debbie Gaby,” she said. Over the next two decades, Sleep America dominated the mattress market, becoming Arizona’s largest mattress retailer with 48 locations throughout the state. Along the way, the Gabys made giving back an integral part of their business, regularly giving away mattresses to nonprofits and people in need. The industry took note of their altruism and hustle. “Tempur-pedic came to me and said, ‘If we give you $100,000 worth of product to give away, we want to see what you can do with it,” Gaby said. “We got lots of PR. We got them on TV. We got them in magazines and developed wonderful relationships.” Next, the company challenged the Gabys to give away $300,000 worth of merchandise. Debbie and Len Gaby ( shown left and right above in a 2004 Frontdoors magazine article ) built the Sleep America empire from scratch and were philanthropists throughout the state. Today ( center ) Debbie carries on the good works on her own. 22 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | OCTOBER 2018

COVER STORY CONTINUED And then it was $500,000. At that point, Sleep America had so many mattresses to deliver, Debbie went to her Valley business neighbors at U-Haul and said, "Would y’all loan me trucks? Because I’ve got people going to Prescott, Cottonwood. I’m going everywhere delivering fancy mattresses for free.” U-haul agreed to comp the truck rentals for Debbie. Gaby’s charm is key to her success. “It’s got to be from being from the South,” she said. “I feel like I’m the biggest winner because I’m hooking up someone that needs to be connected. I’m very blessed and grateful for this gift.” Over the years, Gaby has used her gift to support more than 5,000 organizations. In 2004, she and Len co-founded Sleep America Charities, later renamed Debbie Gaby Charities. The organization donates 100 percent of monies raised to provide resources to local nonprofits. The Gabys created a life of doing well while doing good. And until recently, life was good for Debbie. She loved her husband, enjoyed her charity work, A New Beginning OCTOBER 16, 2018 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Omni Scottsdale Resort & Spa at Montelucia For information and tickets go to: debbiegabycharities.org/ celebrity-catwalk OCTOBER 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 23