Dixon Lanier Merritt

Dixon Lanier Merritt (July 9, 1879–January 9, 1972) was an American poet and humorist. He was a newspaper editor for the Tennessean, Nashville's morning paper, and President of the American Press Humorists Association. Biography Born Dixon Lanier Abernathy, his parents divorced while he was a child and one of his five uncles subsequently adopted him. At age 21, he legally changed his surname to Merritt, which he regretted later in life. Dixon Merritt was married twice. He was first married to Harriotte Triplett Johnson of Kentucky, with whom he had a son and a daughter, though the marriage ended in divorce. He later married Ruth Yates of New York, with whom he had two sons. He penned this well-known limerick in 1910: