PEOPLE & PLACES
Cheers to 60! BY JULIA BAKER | PHOTO BY ADRIAN MORENO
Serial entrepreneur Lyle Estill celebrated his 60th birthday on Feb. 19 with a soiree at The Plant on Lorax Lane featuring live music by the David Quick Jazz Combo and a performance by fire dancers Melanie Donny-Clark and Kerry Donny-Clark. Friends and family read poetry and made speeches about Lyle’s life and accomplishments so far and enjoyed food catered by Lilly Den Farm. “In our family, we celebrate the decades with grandeur,” says Tami Schwerin, Lyle’s life partner. The couple has been a part of the Chatham County community since the early ’90s when they opened a nowdefunct software company in downtown Pittsboro. Since then, Lyle and Tami pursued many other businesses, including Moncure Chessworks, Moncure Museum of Art, Chatham Marketplace, several farms, Piedmont Biofuels, Abundance NC, Fair Game Beverage Co., SMELT Art Gallery and The Plant. The latter is an incubator for small, sustainable-minded businesses that has transformed into a commercial destination and is now known as the Chatham Beverage District. “We are grateful that we get to live and play in this very special community,” Tami says. CM
Arlo Estill, Lyle Estill and Tami Schwerin.
U T I L I TA R I A N . ASTONISHING. B EAU T I F U L . MARK HEWITT POTTERY
2021
Award-winning handcrafted pottery that celebrates the quiet heroism of domesticity and is meant to be used and enjoyed.
F I N D K I L N O P E N I N G D AT E S , S H O P O N L I N E & M O R E AT
HEWITTPOTTERY.COM
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CHATHAM MAGAZINE
APRIL / MAY 2022