# Dick Pepper

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Dick_Pepper
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Dick_Pepper.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Pepper
> Source revision: 1131222520
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''Dick Leaver Pepper''' (24 June 1889 – 15 October 1962) was a musician, actor, and writer for the [BBC](/source/BBC).

==Life==
Born in [Putney](/source/Putney), Pepper was the son of Will C. Pepper, founder of a long-running concert party called the White Coons, and the older brother of [Harry S. Pepper](/source/Harry_S._Pepper).<ref name=bor>"Dick Leaver Pepper", in Uli Heier, Rainer E. Lotz, ''The Banjo on Record: A Bio-discography'', p. 346</ref> His middle name of Leaver came from his mother, whose name was Annie Leaver before her marriage.<ref>Register of Marriages for Fulham registration district, Jan-March 1886, vol. 1a, p. 399: PEPPER, William C and LEAVER, Annie</ref>

Brought up by his father as an entertainer, Pepper picked up the [banjo](/source/banjo) from those around him in the White Coons, and he also trained as a cinematograph operator. In the 1930s, he formed the "Kentucky Banjo Team" with [Joe Morley](/source/Joe_Morley) and [Tarrant Bailey](/source/Tarrant_Bailey), for a [BBC Home Service](/source/BBC_Home_Service) radio programme called ''The Kentucky Minstrels''.<ref name=bor/><ref>Chris Sands, ''Tarrant Bailey Jr. Banjo Solos'' (2011), p. 13: "The Kentucky Banjo Team: Tarrant Bailey Jnr, Joe Morley and Dick Pepper."</ref> In April 1934, he contributed an article to ''[Radio Times](/source/Radio_Times)'' on "Minstrels and Banjo-playing".<ref>''[Radio Times](/source/Radio_Times)'', Issue 550 dated 
13 April 1934, p. 93</ref> He went on to become a writer for the BBC.<ref>Andy Foster, Steve Furst, ''Radio comedy, 1938-68: a guide to 30 years of wonderful wireless'' (Virgin, 1996), pp. 10, 57, 61</ref>

In 1925, Pepper married Eva C. Fazan. He died at Ashford Hospital, [Stanwell](/source/Stanwell), on 15 October 1962, aged 73,<ref>Register of Deaths for Middlesex South, volume 5f, October–December 1962, p. 46: "PEPPER, Dick L, 73"</ref> leaving an estate worth £9,212. At the time of his death he was living at Little Prouton, 93 Chertsey Lane, [Staines, Middlesex](/source/Staines-upon-Thames).<ref>"Pepper, Dick Leaver otherwise Dick Lever" in Probate Index for 1962 at probatesearch.service.gov.uk, accessed 28 July 2016</ref> His widow was still living there when she died in 1968.<ref>''[The London Gazette](/source/The_London_Gazette)'' dated 7 January 1969, [https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/44762/page/278/data.pdf p. 278]</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pepper, Dick Leaver}}
Category:1889 births
Category:1962 deaths
Category:English banjoists

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Dick Pepper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Pepper) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Pepper?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.