Terry Miller-Newcomb was born at Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her grandparents on both sides were Nevada residents, and her mother and father were born in Reno and McGill, respectively. Her younger sister was born at Sunrise Hospital shortly after it opened.

Attorney Jack Anderson was one of the lawyers who handled legal issues for Operation Life, the Westside community organization founded by welfare rights activist Ruby Duncan. The organization aided residents in housing, health services, food, education, job training, day care for working mothers, and general economic development. A former card dealer, Anderson, a caucasian, graduated from the historically black Howard Law School, and began work with his friend Mahlon Brown III, for Clark County Legal Services in the early 1970s.