Johnny Mercer - Savannah, GA - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

Singer, songwriter, radio personality and businessman Johnny Mercer is laid to rest in the Mercer family plot at Savannah’s historic Bonaventure Cemetery. Mercer wrote the lyrics to over 1500 songs for various performers, the Hollywood movie industry and Broadway. Over the course of his long career, he was nominated for nineteen Academy Awards, winning four Best Original Song Oscars. He was the founding president of the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

John Herndon Mercer was born in Savannah Georgia to a prominent family: One of his ancestors was Revolutionary War general Hugh Mercer who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Princeton in 1777. Young Johnny enjoyed acting and singing and often performed in local productions growing up in Savannah. Deciding at an early age to pursue a career in show business, he moved to New York and eventually to Hollywood where he found his real niche as a lyricist.

Over the course of his career, Johnny Mercer collaborated with many of the big names in musical composition: Hoagy Carmichael, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen and Henry Mancini to name a few. Some of his most memorable songs are "Hooray for Hollywood," "Fools Rush In," "That Old Black Magic," "Moon River" and "The Days of Wine and Roses." These latter two songs earned Mercer Academy Awards for Best Original Song in a Motion Picture: “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “Days of Wine and Roses” respectively.

In addition to singing and writing song lyrics, Johnny Mercer was also quite the businessman. In 1942 Mercer co-founded Capitol Records and became its first president. That’s the Capitol Records with the iconic building in Hollywood near the Walk of Fame.
(Sources: wikipedia.com, songhall.org)

Description: Johnny Mercer’s grave is located in section H, Lot 48. There’s a memorial bench at the site that’s inscribed with the names of 18 of Johnny Mercer’s most famous songs. It also shows a caricature of Mercer which he drew himself. Date of birth: 11/18/1909 Date of death: 06/25/1976 Area of notoriety: Entertainment Marker Type: Horizontal Marker Setting: Outdoor Visiting Hours/Restrictions: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm Fee required?: No Web site: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log   11/14/2022 Babushka_Qc visited it