Annette O¡¯Malley, who was part of the bond between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Japan and helped promote baseball internationally, died on July 19 in Los Angeles due to a longstanding lung disease. O¡¯Malley was 81.

O¡¯Malley was married to Peter O¡¯Malley, who served as the Dodgers president from 1970 to 1998 and became the owner following the death of his father, Walter, from 1979 until 1998.

That period included the team¡¯s signing of trailblazing Japanese pitcher Hideo Nomo in 1995.

Annette O¡¯Malley¡¯s connection to Japanese baseball predates Nomo¡¯s arrival in Los Angeles.

She traveled with her husband to help grow the game internationally, including making over 25 visits to Japan. That included the Fukuoka Friendship Series in 1993 when the Dodgers played against the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks.

The O¡¯Malleys helped welcome several guests from Japan to the U.S., including a team from Waseda University. They also hosted the famed Yomiuri Giants, who visited Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Florida, for spring training in 1975 and 1981. In 1988, the Chunichi Dragons visited before going on to claim the Central League pennant.

Japanese baseball legend Shigeo Nagashima made several visits to Dodgertown with the Giants, first as a player and during his first year as the Yomiuri manager in 1975. He was photographed visiting the O¡¯Malleys, and their daughter Katherine, in their home in Los Angeles on Dec. 1, 1974.

The couple also had very close ties with Akihiro ¡°Ike¡± Ikuhara, a longtime assistant to Peter O¡¯Malley and a Dodgers executive. Ikuhara, who died in 1992, was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002. Peter O¡¯Malley established a sports management class in Ikuhara¡¯s honor at Waseda in 2003.

Annette O¡¯Malley helped support the growth of baseball in many countries. A report by the Associated Press in July noted that she visited Canada, China, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan and Venezuela as part of that mission.

The Dodgers expressed condolences after her death in July, as did the World Baseball Softball Confederation, which noted O¡¯Malley shared her husband¡¯s ¡°commitment to international baseball.¡±

The former Annette Zacho married Peter O¡¯Malley in Copenhagen in July 1971, according to an announcement in the New York Times on July 11 of that year. Annette O¡¯Malley attended art school at the Academie de la Grande in Paris and Croydon College of Art in London. She was formerly a designer at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen.

She is survived by her husband Peter, three children, and eight grandchildren.

A private graveside ceremony was scheduled for Friday.