Merrill Sparks a Fascinating Man

What a joy to spend a couple of hours with a man of Merrill Sparks' caliber.

Merrill, 85, a native Iowan who retired to Iowa City about four years ago (See today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette), has performed all around the United States and has known some really famous people including actor James Cagney, "April in Paris" composer Vernon Duke and writers Robert Frost (met while Merrill was at the Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa) and Ezra Pound.

Yet, you learn Merrill is just a regular, humble guy as you sit at the Iowa City/Johnson County Senior Center listening to him play one tune after another from memory following the daily lunch. He has written more than 500 songs and isn't easily stumped at the piano, which he plays as easily as you and I talk. He truly enjoys playing here as much as he ever did at other, more famous venues. And he'll tell you some very interesting stories if you ask.

Among the stories that I didn't have room for in my newspaper column is the one when Merrill saw Leonardo DaVinci's "The Last Supper" in Milan, Italy, while serving in the Army during World War II. The huge 15-by-29-foot painting in the dining hall at Santa Maria delle Grazie had been protected throughout the war by Italians who built a false brick wall in front of it. Just a few days before Merrill arrived, the wall had been torn down to reveal the perfectly preserved painting. What a sight. What inspiration.

As Merrill likes to say, "Life is funny, you know. You make plans and something else turns you off on another road."

Sue Jorgensen of Cedar Rapids, who pushed to have Merrill's musical, "Icaria," performed a week from today at the Unity Center in Cedar Rapids and then June 7 at the senior center in Iowa City, says former Iowa legislator Jean Lloyd Jones plans to put together a four-part video on Merrill's life.

It should be a fascinating video about a fascinating man.