By Carol fisher-Linn
Teresa A. Mercer Wagner, 64, of Ellicottville, died March 22, 2025.
Probably every pampered pup in Ellicottville was beautified by Teresa and her daughter, Calla at Rover Makeovers. Even if you didn’t have your pets groomed, you likely remember Teresa Mercer Wagner from all her years waitressing or tending bar all over Ellicottville at Carson’s, The Gin Mill, Hoagie’s, Dina’s, The Depot, or The Barn. About fifteen years ago, she decided to be her own boss and created Rover Makeovers.
Growing up in the local Ellicottville Mercer clan (parents – Roger and Patricia Mercer) with her brother and a passel of aunts, uncles and many cousins, set the foundation for the straightforward, no-nonsense, yet nurturing and witty woman she would become. She and her brother Tommy, who predeceased her in 2021, spent a great deal of time with their aunt Lucille Harris, until Lucille’s death in 2020. Learning the open-door policy of living near relatives and popping in and out of each other’s homes, she formed her own clan as she became the sister-mother-friend figure to many.
She had a prankster side to her that was wickedly funny and unexpectedly clever. She loved DYI projects always adding a “twist” to them, like painting the blades of a ceiling fan with bright flowers and then hanging a hula dancer upside down in the center so it would dance when the fan was going.
MJ Brown lived in Ellicottville for many years and worked closely with Teresa through the bi-monthly Eville Events news magazine. She tells how Teresa hosted their meetings which turned into lavish meals and fun parties in a room in her house that she dedicated for that use and dubbed it the “Old Broad’s Command Center”. To decorate, she took a Ken Brown calendar with photos of old “sexy” men holding skis or other sports gear to cover their xxx areas, put each one in a frilly pink frame and hung them. MJ’s words so aptly describe so many of the relationships she had with her people. “Teresa was like a sister to me. We laughed and cried at the same things. We solved ALL the problems while walking with Timmy and The Doodlers (MJ’s dogs) … She was a friend I wanted to grow old with.”
She loved making costumes for Halloween. She called herself the White Trash Martha Stewart, and she and long-time pal Brenda Smith (Mill Street Sports Bar) made and handed out Jell-o shots to adult visitors along with candy for the kids. Brenda, who worked all over Ellicottville with Teresa for years and stood for each other’s weddings, raised kids together (thinking their daughters were switched at birth because the girls ended up being like each other’s moms) was also her partner in crime from Key West to Ellicottville. Ask her about the bike rides.
Jane Chew told how for ten years, Teresa would deliver fresh soup or meatballs and help Jane’s mom with her dad’s care … and calmly took care of mishaps, like removing birds from chimneys, while Jane was in Little Valley at work. Obviously, Jane’s mom, Monica adored her.
Hannah Gerwitz, assisted at Rover Makeovers. Hannah had this to say: “What I want the world to know about Teresa is that she was always thinking about others before herself. She was a beautiful sunny day amongst the gray clouds. Many people knew only her professional side, but I’m so beyond grateful to have known Teresa on a much deeper, caring, kind and funny level.”
Nikky Himes (Purple Doorknob) says Teresa was the typical old-world woman who was always mothering people, feeding them, making them laugh and taking them under her wing like a mother bird. Nikky’s mom died twenty-five years ago but with Teresa in her life, she never felt motherless. Teresa made her meatballs for every celebration, for every family in grief, or any occasion that required food. Although cooking was her specialty her baking skills lagged. If she had a certain cake design in mind, she would attempt to create it, and generally failing miserably, would frame a photo of the desired cake and place it next to the pathetic plate holding the wanna be cake.
A celebration of life will be held at a later date. Feel free to honor Teresa and her love for animals with a memorial donation in her name to EARS www.empirerescue.org or mail a check to E.A.R.S. PO Box 445, Salamanca, NY 14779.