Photographer Deborah Mills Thackrey was born in the Texas Panhandle town of Amarillo in 1953. Numerous childhood trips along old Route 66 thru the Southwest instilled in her a wanderlust and love of the passing scenery including dramatic sunsets, old motel signs, roadside attractions, desert landscapes, the Navajo Indian reservation, Burma Shave signs, and National Parks.

Deborah has won juried shows in Los Gatos and Santa Clara. She has shown in the Texas Photographic Society and galleries in the bay area. Thackrey is one of the founders of the Silicon Valley Artists' Collaborative. in 2009 she won the coveted Arts Council Silicon Valley Fellowship Grant for Photography.