Dorothy Jean Bishop was born in Tillar, Arkansas, in 1942, and moved with her family to Vanport, Oregon, in 1944, so that her father could work in one of Henry Kaiser's wartime shipyards. Hurtis Mixon Hadley was born in Neveda County, Arkansas, in 1942, and his family moved to Vanport in 1945. As children, Dorothy Bishop and Hurtis Mixon Hadley survived the flooding of Vanport, and attended Portland public elementary and high schools. The couple met while Hurtis was playing music in his band, The Fabulous Majestics, and they were married in 1962.

In 1963, Dorothy Hadley graduated with her cosmetology license from the College of Beauty in the Hollywood neighborhood of Northeast Portland. In 1965, Hurtis Mixon Hadley changed his name to Hurtis Mixon Hadley, Sr. following the birth of his first son, Hurtis Mixon Hadley, Jr. In 1965, Hurtis Mixon Hadley, Sr. became the first Black Oregonian to graduate from Portland Community Colleges' Bakers Apprenticeship program. In 1970, he became the first Black bakery manager in Oregon, as well as the first Black bakery trainer in the state for the Albertsons corporation. In 1977, the Hadleys purchased the Milwaukie Pastry Kitchen, and became the owners of the first Black-owned bakery in the state of Oregon. They closed the bakery in 1985.