Carol Mary Mercer, Garden Designer
Carol Mary Mercer, an award-winning garden designer who had been a dancer in Broadway plays as a youth, died at her East Hampton home on Nov. 19. She was 92 years old and had congestive heart failure.
For more than 30 years, Mrs. Mercer, along with Lisa Verderosa, a good friend and business partner, ran Secret Garden, through which Mrs. Mercer created gardens that were featured in magazines, books, newspapers, and calendars, including Hallmark’s calendar of roses.
On the South Fork, she was active in the East Hampton Ladies Village Improvement Society, helping to create the Sunken Garden on its Main Street property. She was on the Guild Hall garden committee and a member of the Horticultural Alliance of the Hamptons. Mrs. Mercer had worked as a photography representative for several noted photographers, including Irving Penn. In doing so, she developed a talent for flower arranging, eventually creating arrangements for Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush as well as for leading ladies who happened to be in New York, such as Catherine Deneuve.
She was born in New York City on Dec. 5, 1923, to Walter Keyser and the former Beatrice Lewis. She grew up in Great Neck and attended the Marymount School in New York City. Her show business career began when she got a role as a dancer in a show called “Sons of Fun.” She was enrolled at Marymount at the time; on occasions when she was absent and the nuns asked where she was, her friends were said to have replied, “She’s a chorus girl on Broadway!”
She later became an Agnes DeMille dancer and was in the original production of “Oklahoma.” She and her first husband, William Windom, were married in 1947. They both acted on Broadway and in stock shows. They divorced in 1955 but remained friends.
In 1957, Mrs. Mercer married Bob McElfresh, an automobile executive who worked in Switzerland and Germany. In Europe, she often arranged fashion shows for the American Women’s Club. She also became devoted to travel, touring museums and gardens and seeking out unusual and rare flowers. The couple divorced in 1964.
Mrs. Mercer and Norman Mercer were married in 1971, and lived in Japan for several years, where Mr. Mercer’s import-export business was based. After returning to this country, they divided their time between New York City and East Hampton, where they bought a house on Ocean Avenue designed by Robert A.M. Stern.
Her house and its extensive grounds, which were on tours for botanical and floral societies from around the world over the years, allowed her to explore garden design. Water, cutting, perennial, and Japanese gardens were among her eclectic creations. She created, and donated to Hofstra University, one of the first gardens designed for the physically challenged. She won gold medals at the 1986 and 1993 New York Flower Shows, designed a Garden of Hope at the 1994 New York Antiques Show, and supported the Boys and Girls Club of New York through a rooftop garden for the Kips Bay Showhouse.
In addition to a passion for the theater, Mrs. Mercer enjoyed the fine arts, needlepoint, and sailing. Her husband died in 2007, and she moved to East Hampton full time after his death.
Mrs. Mercer was cremated and a memorial ceremony will be held at a later date. She is survived by a sister, Noel Fischer of North Palm Beach, Fla., a brother, John Keyser of Glen Ellyn, Ill., three nieces, and one nephew. Donations in her memory have been suggested to the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons, P.O. Box 901, Wainscott 11975; the Horticultural Alliance of the Hamptons, P.O. Box 202, Bridgehampton 11932, or to East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach 11978.