Debra found it difficult to focus on school work while in elementary school. She fought daily, defending those who were bullied. Mrs. Bonner was assigned to special education classes. Then a miracle happened when a new girl moved to Flint, Michigan – Debra’s hometown. (add quote section with italics to write – “She was tall and dark, which was not fashionable in the 1960s, and she must have had a hundred little pigtails all over her head with different colored bows. Children would tease her. She had a Southern drawl, and kids found that funny. She was taller than most of the kids and could have easily grabbed them and just sat on them – but she wouldn’t. She would not defend herself. She would just cry. So I would take up for her. I grew to admire her for her strength not to fight, even though she could beat them. She had a beautiful singing voice and I wanted to be just like her. When I asked her why she wouldn’t fight back, she told me, “Because my friend would not like it.” I asked her who her friend was, and she invited me to come with her to His house one Sunday morning. I came to know her friend personally. His name was Jesus. Once I gained a personal relationship with my Lord, things changed for me. I promised the Lord that if He would give me a voice, I would serve HIm and never fight again. I kept my promise, and He kept His.”) Her life totally changed; her mind expanded, and knowledge began to grow. Her pastor, Avery Aldridge; choir director, James Peoples; and the Foss Avenue Baptist Church family in Flint, Michigan, loved and nurtured Debra. They paid for her voice lessons until she graduated from high school with honors.

After receiving her masters degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Michigan, Debra married her sweetheart, Harry.

Together they served a Baptist mission in West Liberia, Africa. Prompted to return to the States, Debra became an inner-city high school choir director in Cincinnati, Ohio, continuing to change lives for good. Then prompted to move West, she was mentored and trained over a thirty-year period by two of the most celebrated vocal pedagogues of the 20th and 21st centuries, Richard Miller and Seth Riggs.

Debra with Seth Riggs

Richard Miller wrote, ‘Debra has excellent academic skills that enable her to teach the classically trained singer… and is well qualified as a teacher who successfully deals with popular vocal idioms. I am happy to recommend her as a person of strong pedagogic conviction and of much personal substance.

Debra, along with her associates and students, have trained over 200 Grammy Award, Tony Award, and Opera winners. Debra has sung as a guest soloist, and recorded with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (now Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square). She has performed around the world and has developed her own vocal training program, Your True Voice. 

Debra is a testament of how gospel music and finding one’s true voice can change the life of a youth, and how a life can bloom with positive mentorship and a little financial support. Debra’s dream is to transform young people’s lives, giving them hope, joy, and self-esteem, by helping them find their true and authentic voice while singing songs of inspiration. They will then have the necessary tools to accomplish anything they set their minds to.