By Ashley M. Casey
Staff Writer
If it weren’t for Carol Mercer, many of the charitable causes in Baldwinsville as we know them wouldn’t exist. Mercer, who turned 100 on April 4, established the Betsy Baldwin chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, was the first manager of the Baldwinsville Volunteer Center and founded her church circle at Grace Episcopal Church.
At Mercer’s 100th birthday party April 2 at the McHarrie Towne Center, Baldwinsville Mayor Dick Clarke listed even more of Mercer’s accomplishments and said, “I got tired just reading that.”
“I’m exhausted!” Mercer replied.
While she dedicated much of her adult life to good causes in B’ville, Carol Simons Mercer isn’t a native of Baldwinsville. She grew up in Syracuse — with no electricity — and was a track and tennis star in her school days.
“This was a little bit before Title IX, folks,” Mercer’s daughter, Ellen Mercer Fallon, reminded the guests at her mother’s birthday party.
After graduating from Syracuse University, Carol Simons married Walter “Bud” Mercer, for whose family Mercer Park is named. The Red Mill Inn stands on the site of Mercer Mill. In the 1940s, the Mercers moved to a home across from the Seneca River on West Genesee Road, two doors down from Tassone’s Wine Garden.
“Mom and my father enjoyed the Seneca River with their boat,” Fallon recalled.
Mercer is not the squeamish type: She was the one to rescue Bud and young Ellen from spiders on their boat, and she wasn’t afraid of a little slime on the locks while climbing the ladder.
“She never depended on Daddy to bail her out,” Fallon said. “An early feminist? I think so.”
In addition to boating, Mercer was an avid swimmer and kayaker up until a few years ago. She led the annual kayak parade at a resort in Punta Gorda, Fla., dressed as a nun — her resort friends nicknamed her “Mother Superior” because she so patiently listened to their woes.
Mercer has been on international adventures, too. On display at her birthday party were a pair of alligator shoes and a matching handbag from her 1955 trip to Cuba. She had accompanied her husband, then working for Morris Pumps, on a business trip. It was a time of political unrest for Cuba; the country was on the cusp of a guerrilla war that would culminate in Fidel Castro’s communist takeover in 1959.
“The people that we were visiting were really upset. They couldn’t talk to anybody except in the car all closed up,” Mercer recalled. “They had to give up their airplane and all kinds of other things.”
Bud Mercer even offered his expertise to help restore the water supply to prisoners in Cuba. The trip has stuck with Carol Mercer, who recently opted to watch news coverage of President Barack Obama’s trip to Cuba instead of her beloved alma mater’s basketball games.
“All my friends were watching Syracuse University basketball, but I watched Cuba for three hours,” she said.
More than 60 people were invited to celebrate Mercer at McHarrie Towne Center. Mercer was one of McHarrie Towne’s first residents in 2001 and now resides at McHarrie Pointe. Mercer’s longtime friend and Betsy Baldwin DAR chapter colleague, Luella Oakes, is working with McHarrie Life to dedicate an outdoor bench to Mercer.
“We wanted to do something because she was the founder of the DAR [in Baldwinsville],” Oakes said. “She’s been very involved in the community.”
In addition to the accomplishments listed above, Mercer was named the BVC’s Woman of the Year in 1967, was a Girl Scout leader and served on many boards, including the Female Charitable Society, which celebrates its 200th anniversary next year. Donna O’Donnell of the FCS said she expects to see Mercer attend that celebration “with bells on.”
By all accounts, Mercer loves a good party.
“Last year at the Man and Woman Volunteer of the Year banquet, someone asked her what her secret to longevity was,” Clarke remembered, “and she said, ‘A little bit of scotch.’”
