In Memoriam…
Joe Mercer Belfalls, Texas
Arthur Joseph Mercer III was born on June 6, 1947, in Temple, Texas, and died on October 2, 2025, at the age of 78 at his home near Belfalls, Texas, after a long, fierce battle with cancer.
He graduated from Temple High School in 1965 where he played football and participated in Golden Gloves. After a semester at Blinn College, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in July 1966 to serve in Vietnam until 1968, during the beginning of the Tet Offensive. He was honorably discharged with the rank of Sargent having received a Purple Heart, Presidential Unit Citation, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnamese Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, and rifle Sharpshooter Badge.
Mercer returned to Texas to study at Trinity University in San Antonio and Texas A&M University in College Station where he graduated with a degree in building construction in 1974. He married Beth Ussery of Weslaco, Texas, in August 1974, after graduation and moved to Houston to work with Brown & Root in their offshore marine division designing offshore drilling platforms. Before he was transferred to Bahrain, he was offered a position with Ussery Engineering Inc. in Weslaco, Texas, to help
expand his father-in-law’s business in the design and construction of underground drainage and irrigation pipelines on agricultural land in the Rio Grande Valley. The Mercers moved to Monte Alto, Texas, where they both worked for the family business. Mercer later left Ussery Engineering and started Mercer Apiaries, a commercial beekeeping business producing honey and providing pollination services to local farming operations for the production of cucurbit crops.
The Mercers bought land, planted pasture, and raised Simbrah cattle, naming that operation Filegonia Cattle Company. Both were active in the Rio Grande Valley Simbrah-Simmental Association for many years. In 2008, the decision was made to shut down the business, pack up, and move everything to Central Texas near Belfalls, close to where most of Mercer’s immediate family lived. Mercer was preceded in death by his parents. Survivors include his wife, Beth; his brother, Mike, and sister-in-law, Nancy Mercer, of Temple; cousins, nieces, and nephews; and a godson, Frank Barker of Cypress, Texas.
