Mercedes DeMare, Former New York Stage Designer, Dies at 103

Mercedes Moore DeMare of Sparta died Nov. 17, just 10 days after her 103rd birthday, according to a notice on the website of Goble Funeral Home.

Mercedes Moore was born in 1910 as the daughter of doctors in Brooklyn, N.Y. She grew up to live a life full of experiences and accomplishments not available to most women of her time.

In a Sparta Independent article published in honor of her 100th birthday, she mentioned that she attended Smith College and received a degree in stage design and costume in 1931 and followed that by earning a master’s of fine arts degree in drama at Yale University in 1936. Some of her academic work from Yale is still available in online archives and in libraries across the country.

After receiving her M.F.A., she married George DeMare and launched her career in New York City. Her costume and scene designs appeared in a number of Broadway shows during the 1930s and '40s. Eventually, the DeMares decided to raise a family. They ended up having three boys and a girl and lived in a farmhouse in Saugerties, N.Y.

DeMare called that farmhouse home until eight years ago, when her husband died at age 92 and she came to live with her son Gregory—and bond with friends old and new—in the Lake Mohawk section of Sparta.

Upon turning 100, she celebrated at a local restaurant with friends and told the Independent that she kept active by walking, playing cards and doing crossword puzzles and socializing.