One Sunday Luther Mercer and his wife, Margie, were sitting down to lunch.
“I asked him if he wanted to say the blessing, and he started praying,” Margie said. “He prayed and prayed and prayed some more, and the food was getting cold. I tapped him on the shoulder and said ‘Honey? You could stop any time,’ and he looked over at me and said, ‘Well, I’m not done yet!’”
Mr. Mercer died June 23 of complications from a series of strokes. He had been a resident of Scenic Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Herculaneum for more than a year.
Staffers at the nursing home called him “Smiley,” or “Blue Eyes,” said Margie, who was married to Mr. Mercer for 29 years.
“He was so witty. He was always jolly; he always had a smile on his face,” she said.
Mr. Mercer grew up in Dry Creek, La., the oldest son in a large family.
He was drafted into the military for service in World War II, but the war ended before he could be sent overseas.
“He served 3 1/2 years, and was stationed at Scott (Air Force Base in Illinois),” Margie said. “He and his buddy went to Highlands (former amusement park near the St. Louis airport) one Sunday, and they saw these two girls. Luther told me his buddy said, ‘I’ll take the skinny one and you take the other one.’”
The “other one” turned out to be Mr. Mercer’s first wife, Audrey.
“When he got out of the military, they came here to live,” Margie said. “He told Audrey he would rather come here than have her go down there and have to adjust to living where she had no family and didn’t know anybody. That was Luther; he was that kind of a person – just always very thoughtful.”
Mr. Mercer was among the many millions of American servicemen dumped onto the job market when the war ended.
“He said he had a terrible time finding a job,” Margie said. “He finally got on at Wally Berger Buick, and stayed until he retired.”
Mr. Mercer’s wife died in 1983, shortly after their son, Ron, got engaged to Margie’s daughter, Sherri.
“I met Luther when I went to the visitation to pay my respects,” Margie says. “Then we met again at the rehearsal dinner, and that was the beginning of the story.”
He was a new widower; she had been widowed 11 years. They were married in October 1984.
The two families blended together almost seamlessly from the start.
“There was never any problem. His children treated me like a queen and my kids just loved him,” Margie said. “My daughter Beth said, ‘Not everybody is blessed with two wonderful dads.’”
Over the years, one of Mr. Mercer’s biggest joys was his garden.
“His real joy was in giving (the products) away,” Margie said. “Most of the time, he even cleaned it before he’d give it to somebody. He’d say, “You don’t want to give a gift that’s dirty.”
Potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, beets – he grew them all, and he and his wife canned what they didn’t give away.
“He took great pride in that garden,” Margie said.
Mr. Mercer was a loving father and an indulgent grandfather.
“Those kids idolized him,” Margie said. “He had a little tractor lawnmower with a trailer on the back and he’d pull them all around the place. He’d have one on his lap ‘helping’ him drive. The great-grandkids thought it was great when they could push Grandpa in the wheelchair.”
He wasn’t afraid to let his grandchildren help him show his feminine side, either.
“He let the girls fix his hair, spike it all up,” Margie said “One time, he let one of the girls paint his toenails red. I was getting ready to leave, going to visit my sister in Iowa, and I wanted to take it off. He said, ‘Aw, nobody’s going to see it.’
“Well, sure enough, while I was gone, he had to go to the hospital. When they called me, that was the first thing I thought of – those red toes. But they just laughed about it in the ER.”
Mr. Mercer suffered a serious stroke in February 2013.
“The doctor told me it was the worst kind anybody could have,” Margie said. “He went through rehab, but I wasn’t physically able to take care of him. So he went to the skilled care unit at Scenic and was there until he passed away.”
A deeply faithful man, Mr. Mercer was ordained a deacon at First Baptist Church of Festus-Crystal City.
“He was a godly man and a wonderful Christian. He was a testimony to people around him,” his wife said. “Luther loved to visit people on behalf of the church. He visited a lot of people in nursing homes, or if they were sick.
“The strokes affected his memory in a lot of ways, but the wonderful part was that he could still pray, still quote Bible verses, sing hymns. The spiritual part of him was still there.”
Mr. Mercer had four more strokes in his final year.
“He had problems recognizing people,” Margie said. “You could see each one took a little bit more out of him.”
But he never lost his caring, compassionate nature.
“He would want people to know how much he loved his church,” Margie said. “He would hope that his life could lead somebody else to the Lord.”
“Life Story,” posted each Saturday on Leader Publications’ website, focuses on one individual’s impact on his or her community.