Gordly was one of three children born in Portland, Oregon, to a mother active in local leadership within the Order of the Eastern Star and a father who worked for the railroad.

This fear kept them from being close and was also the reason for her brother, nine years her senior, would leave home early to join the Air Force.

[2] After five years at Pacific Northwest Bell, she enrolled at Portland State University, earning a degree in the administration of justice.

[7] In 2008, while serving as senator, OHSU opened the Avel Gordly Center for Healing, which provides mental health and psychiatric services.

Gordly is an adjunct professor at her alma mater,[8] and with Patricia A. Schecter, is the author of Remembering the Power of Words (2001, ISBN 0-87071-604-2), her memoirs, published by Oregon State University Press.