Mickey Mantle Wife: Who is Merlyn Mantle?

Merlyn Mantle was an American author and widow of New York Yankees outfielder Mickey Mantle.

Mickey Mantle married Merlyn Johnson on December 23, 1951, in Picher, Oklahoma; they had four sons.

In an autobiography, Mantle stated that he married Merlyn not out of love, but because his domineering father told him to.

They were married for 43 years, until Mantle died in 1995, though they were estranged in his final years.

Merlyn Mantle was treated at the Betty Ford Clinic for alcoholism, a problem that also affected her husband and three of her sons.

Merlyn Mantle told the New York Daily News shortly after her husband’s death in 1995 that alcohol hurt her family’s life: “I was in there partying and doing the same thing as Mick.” That was our life, and I couldn’t deny that I was a part of it. It destroys families.

Merlyn Mantle’s last public appearance was on August 5, 2008, at a dinner for former Yankees player Bobby Murcer’s memorial service.

Merlyn Mantle, 77, died of pneumonia on August 10, 2009, at a hospice in Plano, Texas. She was afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease. She was laid to rest alongside her husband and two sons in the Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery in Dallas.