page_title: Joe Mercer
section_title: Later life
hierarchical_section_title: Joe Mercer / Later life
caption_attribution_description: English: A mosaic in memory of Joe Mercer
context_page_description: Joseph Mercer OBE was an English football player and manager. Mercer, who played as a defender for Everton and Arsenal in his footballing career, also went on to be at the helm of Aston Villa, Manchester City and England as a manager.
context_section_description: After quitting as Coventry City boss, he served as a director of the club from 1975 to his retirement in 1981. He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to football in 1976. He suffered with Alzheimer's disease in later life and died, sitting in his favourite armchair, on his 76th birthday in 1990. He was survived by his widow Norah, who remained a keen football follower, and attended Manchester City matches to support City for many years. She died in March 2013 and her funeral was attended by 120-plus mourners, including City legends Mike Summerbee, Tony Book, Colin Bell and Joe Corrigan as well as Sir Bobby Charlton.
  He is commemorated by his old club Manchester City with the road Joe Mercer Way at the City of Manchester Stadium being named after him. On the road there are two mosaics by renowned Manchester artist Mark Kennedy of Mercer; one shows his smiling face lifting the League Championship trophy; the other is a version of a famous photograph showing the back of him as he looks out over the Maine Road pitch towards the Kippax Stand. His contribution to City was commemorated in the Kippax tribute still sung at the Etihad Stadium to the tune of Auld Lang Syne: "The Stretford End cried out aloud: 'It's the end of you Sky Blues.' Joe Mercer came. We played the game. We went to Rotherham United, we won 1–0 and we were back into Division One. We've won the League, we've won the Cup, we've been to Europe too. And when we win the League again we'll sing this song to you: City, City, City."
  At Maine Road a corporate suite, the Joe Mercer Suite, was officially opened by his widow Norah in 1993. A similar facility named after him exists at Goodison. In 1993 Mercer's official biography, Football With A Smile, was written by Gary James. This book sold out within six months and was revised and re-published early in 2010.
  Joe Mercer is also featured upon the mural that surrounds the Emirates Stadium.
  He was a subject of the television programme This Is Your Life in March 1970 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews.
  Mercer was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame at the National Football Museum in Preston on 4 July 2009. He was inducted for his managerial success. Mercer was an active freemason attending Rivacre Lodge No. 5805 at Ellesmere Point.
caption: A mosaic in memory of Joe Mercer
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