10 Facts About Dorothy Pizer

The daughter of a tailor who had left school at 15, Dorothy Pizer grew up in a household without books in London's East End.

Dorothy Pizer was always treated as Padmore's wife, although they were never formally married, and he had a former wife, Julia Semper.

Dorothy Pizer supported the couple financially by continuing to work as a secretary during the day.

Dorothy Pizer has been praised for her tireless work as a secretary to provide a living for Padmore, her typing efforts on his manuscripts, and her reputation as a consummate hostess and excellent chef for the revolving door of African and West Indian nationalists who came to their home.

In 1953 Dorothy Pizer persuaded Wright to visit the Gold Coast, where George had already started advising Kwame Nkrumah in his plans for its independence as Ghana.

Dorothy Pizer herself visited the Gold Coast for the first time in 1954, and in 1957 the Padmores moved to Ghana permanently as special advisers to Kwame Nkrumah.

At the time of her husband's premature death in 1959, Dorothy Padmore was visiting W E B Du Bois and his wife Shirley in New York.

Dorothy Pizer returned to Accra for her husband's state funeral, in which his ashes were buried at Christiansborg Castle, and she continued to live in Ghana as an adviser to Nkrumah.

Dorothy Pizer planned but never completed a biography of her husband, collecting notes and papers relating to him.

George and Dorothy Pizer would give dinners to all the people who came to them.