60PLUS opener
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his issue features a profile story about Anne Marie Kenny, a local Francophile who is the president of Alliance Française d’Omaha. Her story touches upon the 100th anniversary of Alliance Française in the city. Mark and Vera Mercer, and Nicholas and Jane Bonham-Carter, are honorary chairs of the cultural organization’s centennial celebration. The gala also recognizes the legacy of another prominent Francophile in Omaha—Sam Mercer.
Gwen Lemke Contributing Editor, 60PLUS In Omaha
We lost a pillar of Omaha’s cultural landscape when the 92-year-old Mercer passed away at his home in Honf leur, France, on Feb. 5, 2013. Omaha Magazine’s sister publication, Encounter, ran a tribute to the man in its May/June 2013 edition. Here is excerpted text from the tribute, written by Leo Adam Biga, who is also the writer responsible for Anne Marie Kenny’s profile.
Gwen “SAM MERCER:
The Old Market’s Godfather” excerpted from the 2013 story by Leo Adam Biga
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ontinental bon vivant Samuel Mercer, who passed away in early February, was not a typical Nebraskan. Though he grew up to become the Old Market’s undisputed godfather, he started life as the son of prominent Omaha physician and landowner Nelson Mercer. Young Sam was born and raised in privileged circumstances in London, England, and educated at Oxford and Yale. After living in Washington, D.C., he based his law practice in Paris, where he mostly lived the rest of his life, holding dual citizenship. In Paris, Mercer cultivated relationships with avant-garde artists. A watercolorist himself, he made artist Eva Aeppli his second wife. On his handful of trips to Omaha each year, Mercer cut an indelible figure with his shoulder-length gray hair, his trans-Atlantic accent, and his waxing on far-ranging subjects. He spoke perfect French. With the death of his father in 1963, Mercer took charge of the Mercer Management company here. He appreciated the century-old brick warehouses—some Mercer-owned—comprising the wholesale produce market just southeast of downtown. By 1968, Mercer moved strategically to gain control of a collection of buildings in what is now the Old Market. It was Mercer’s idea to make the ground-f loor space of the former Gilinsky Fruit Company into a French restaurant—the French Cafe. More anchor attractions followed—Homer’s, M’s Pub, Mr. Toad, Spaghetti Works, Nouvelle Eve, the Firehouse Dinner Theater, the Bemis.
Samuel Mercer (center) discusses the Old Market with Bob Cunningham and Mark Mercer (right). Photo by Vera Mercer.
The Mercers created one of the Old Market’s most distinct features, The Passageway, and later opened their own distinguished enterprises—V. Mertz, La Buvette, and The Boiler Room. The rest is history. SEPTEMBER // OCTOBER • 2017 / 179 / BESTOFOMAHA.COM