[1] Her father, Earle Clements, was a member of the House of Representatives, governor of Kentucky and a United States senator.

In 1960, Abell volunteered to work for the Democratic Campaign Committee, where she answered mail for Lady Bird Johnson.

They became her principal aides and during the 1964 presidential campaign they organized the "Lady Bird Special," a train tour through the Southern states, where many voters had been alienated by passage of the Civil Rights Act.

A combination of Southern charm and steely determination in these endeavors earned her the Secret Service handle of "Iron Butterfly."

When planning a White House Festival of the Arts in 1965, Abell preferred to invite artists and performers, but she clashed with the historian Eric F. Goldman, who as special assistant to the president included poets, novelists, and other writers.

In 1974 she helped organize a Counter-Gridiron party to support women journalists, who had been excluded from the Gridiron Club, which annually entertained Washington's political elite.