Owner & President | Certified Picture Framer
Born in Bellefonte, PA, Debbie has been singing for audiences since age 2. With a lifelong love of music, she graduated Magna Cum Laude in Theater and Communications from Temple University. While in college, Debbie held the lead in many shows and was awarded the Charlotte Cushman Award for Excellence in Performance and the Statecrafters Award for performing. She also studied in London for a semester and sang with the Hammersmith Opera Company. Debbie sang in ‘dive bars’ in New York with sets of Jazz and Musical Theater while supporting herself working for Hicks and Greist Advertising.
In 1987, Debbie’s Dad, Sig, asked her to return to Harrisburg to help him find a permanent home for the Smith’s framing business. Debbie found an 1870s Victorian home in New Cumberland which Sig, Debbie, and Debbie’s mom, Polly, restored to better than its original glory. The business then became Smith Custom Framing and Victorian Galleries, serving customers in that location until Polly and Sig retired from the business in 1998 to travel and enjoy life. Soon after selling the building, however, Sig was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Debbie relocated The Smith Gallery & Fine Custom Framing to its present location and continues to serve customers with the highest quality and professionalism in the industry.
Debbie still loves to perform on stage—acting, singing, and dancing. Her favorite roles include Lucy in Jekyll and Hyde, and her tour de force role of Vivian Bearing in WIT! In both shows she dies on stage … maybe that is her barometer for favorites? Debbie performs the National Anthem for sporting events and graduations, is a troubadour for weddings, and gets to vote for the Oscars since she is a member of SAG/Aftra, the union that represents professional film and TV actors.
Debbie is happy to call Central PA her home. She lives in Camp Hill with her boyfriend, Rick Stevens, and two cats, Simon and Mikado. She is grateful every day for her friends, customers, and staff members who lift her and her business to new levels, and that her life is abundant, exciting, and fulfilling in so many ways. The legacy that her Mom and Dad began continues and grows.