Dora de Pédery was born in
Budapest,
Hungary on 16 November 1913 to Attila and Emilia de Pédery. Her father, Attila, was a scientist and a talented pianist, and her mother regularly sang and told stories to Dora and her two sisters. The family focused on music, schooling, and reading, and the children were encouraged to cultivate their ambitions and talents. Dora initially studied physics, medicine and architecture before choosing art as her intended vocation at the age of 24. After
German forces occupied Hungary in March 1944, her family decided to flee west to
Helmstedt, Germany, Five years later, through the sponsorship of Major Thomas S. Chutter and his family, she immigrated to Canada. She arrived in Toronto and worked as a family's live-in housekeeper for a year. She then became a high school art teacher, a job for which she often walked eight kilometres. She also did odd jobs such as "painting designs on children's furniture, cleaning artists' studios and making Christmas decorations for friends and gift shops." In 1949, she married Vela Hunt. He was a Hungarian
journalist and they knew each other previously in Hannover. They divorced in 1961. She died from
colorectal cancer in
Toronto, Ontario on 29 September 2008. ==Work==