In 1965, Kelley Wolff’s grandmother, Betty Joe Wolff, opened Page & Palette, the renowned fourth-generation bookstore in Fairhope. She opened a second store location in Perdido Key’s Coquina Village shopping center in 1985, and Kelley worked at this store. Her identical twin, Karin, took a break from the family business and worked in the Orange Beach location of Coastal Video.

Mike Lyons, who grew up in Decatur, Alabama, moved to Gulf Shores after his parents retired. He and his high school buddy and college roommate spent the summer working at Coastal Video. Mike was in Gulf Shores, and the roommate was in the Orange Beach location with Karin.

It was 1987, and Top Gun had just been released on video. One day, Mike’s friend called and said, “I met this cute girl at the video store, and she has an identical twin sister. Why don’t we go on a double date?” Kelley’s version: “Karin asked me to go to a work party in Pensacola, and I agreed!”

Dating identical twins can be tricky. We've all seen the movie The Parent Trap, so when the soon-to-be  “double-daters” met at a Tom Thumb convenience store on the way to a work party in Pensacola, the guys realized they didn’t know which twin was their date. So, on the way out of the store, with the twins watching, they flipped a coin to decide whose date was whose. 

Mike and Kelley enjoyed the evening, but Kelley was already seeing a Navy pilot in Pensacola at the time. “I dated them both for a while, but as the summer progressed, I fell in love with Mike,” Kelley said.

After the summer break, they both returned to college: Mike at Auburn and Kelley at the University of Montevallo. Just two weeks later, a lovesick Mike drove to Montevallo to pick up Kelley, and they both moved to Mobile and enrolled at the University of South Alabama, so they could be together. 

Three years later, in 1990, Mike and Kelley were married. Kelley got a job framing pictures at a mall store, Deck the Walls, as a framer. A year later, her father offered her a job for .35 cents more an hour to work in his framing business.

In the meantime, Mike commuted on weekends from Mobile to Coastal Video to earn enough to pay for college. “I had no clue what I was going to do, but I did earn a degree in Business at South. I knew I wanted to work in retail, work with my hands, and be in a creative environment.”  He says he paid his way through college by working in the adult film industry, renting “behind the curtain” movies in the back of the video store, much to Kelley’s chagrin.

Kelley was the manager of the framing business for 6 years, and then Robbie Wolff, her father, offered to sell the framing business to them. This was 30 years ago, in 1995.

It was a fun dynamic to watch Mike and Kelley as they recalled their life events. After they married, they lived in her grandmother’s cinder block  house on Fish River, and when slow-moving Hurricane Danny dumped 30” to 40” of rain on Baldwin County in 1997, the Fish River flooded their home.  They then moved in with her sister, Karin, and husband, Kiefer, and their new baby, and lived with them for nearly a year on Pier Street in Fairhope.

“By then, we had decided that we weren’t going to have children, and wanted to just travel and live free,” says Kelley. “Then I found out I was eight weeks pregnant.” Before the flood in 1996, they had purchased the property next to Page & Palette from her grandmother and were building a commercial space for the Lyons Share. The business would be downstairs, with a rental residence on the second floor. “After the flood and a year living with my sister’s family, we decided to claim the residence while it was still under construction. It was a crazy time.”  

When selling the property on De La Mare Avenue, Kelley’s grandmother had insisted that they provide her with a convenient parking space. “That’s why there is a garage door in the front of the building. And no, this was never the old firehouse,” says Mike. “We get asked that a lot.”

Daughter Olivia Grace Lyons was born in 1999, and three years later, deciding to have one more child, twins Ethan and Emily were born. Mike laughs, “If you want to make God laugh, just tell him your plans.” Ethan is now helping manage  Lyons Share and is the heir apparent. Lyons Share has built a strong reputation for discovering new artists and is often recommended by regional art galleries as the place to have fine art framed.

We discussed a few of the artists who distinguished Lyons Share. “I have to start with a local artist, Jo Patton," says Mike. Her distinct style can be recognized in any medium, but her watercolor ‘Pier Paintings’ are a must-have for anyone living in the area. She captures the essence of living on Mobile Bay, or anywhere along the backwaters of the low country Gulf Coast.”

The late Ann Morley, who painted under the name Frantic, was a renowned ‘folk artist’ whose art is highly sought after internationally. “She lived in Pensacola, was bipolar, and ended up taking her own life. We still work with the family to represent her art and have brokered pieces as far away as New Zealand,” says Mike. “We are the exclusive Frantic art dealer in the secondary market, and we’re always looking for more.”

Jan Hill, who has her own distinctive style and sells really well, is a popular artist from New Orleans. e “We are always on the lookout for emerging new artists. We recently attended the Loyola art event in Mobile. Most people are there to find art. We are there to find artists.”

They tell me many of the artists that they discovered early in their careers have become extremely popular. “They’ve grown bigger than Fairhope,” says Kelley. Lyons Share still carries their work, but it is also found in prestigious galleries in New Orleans, Nashville, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Birmingham. “It's nice to be included in such an elite company, and it speaks well for the level of regard for the art community in Fairhope.”

Kelley tells me that many of their customers are young professionals purchasing art for larger homes as their families and residences grow. Twenty to twenty-five percent of customers are tourists who visit Fairhope, and many are purchasing art for second homes. “Discovering and promoting new artists gives us so much pleasure and satisfaction.”

Mike says they are careful to select artists who aren’t just copying others, but have a unique style that is fresh and different. He mentions Erin Fitzhugh Gregory from Columbus, Georgia. “We recruited her out of Auburn when she was a student. You could see the talent. She’s blown up and is huge now. She’s an incredible artist.”

We discuss the late artist, Nall, who made Fairhope his home. The couple met Nall at a fundraiser for The Haven No-Kill Animal Shelter. “We were hosting an art show, and he put a $100 bill in the contribution bucket. He knew it was a good project. Later, we ended up framing 1700 originals and prints by him  for the Retirement Systems of Alabama after they purchased the Grand Hotel.”

Mike tells the story that after Hurricane Katrina, Mike and his crew were asked to go save the valuable art collection that was piled up amongst the debris in the Grand Hotel Conference Center. A state trooper was guarding the entrance to the Hotel. “No one's getting in here, no one.” A call was made, and soon they were climbing through the debris, collecting the art, and salvaging everything they could. “We had to work quickly to dry the art and restore it. They weren’t worried about hotel room table lamps. It was a huge investment that was at risk of being ruined.”

We talk about the lost art of framing. “People don’t always appreciate the frame that goes with art. It’s like a singer walking on the stage of the Apollo Theater. It just makes the music sound better,” says Mike. Over the years, Lyons Share has been asked to frame some incredibly historic pieces. It’s a source of pride and inspiration.

“We’ve framed some epic stuff. Some of it is haunting: A leather document stating that a slave was officially free, a pistol given to a Korean War veteran from Pensacola who spent over seven years in solitary confinement held captive by the Chinese, and a certificate from the second-in-command of the USS Hornet who retrieved  Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins after their Moon Walk mission.”

Kelley mentions framing the original sheet music compositions from the Order of Mystics’ very first Mardi Gras ball in Mobile in the 1870s. Mike mentions the original “You Are My Sunshine” composition by Jimmy Davis from Mobile. “Some of it's magical. I often feel inadequate. Everything we touch is worth a million dollars,” Mike warns his employees often.

We laugh about ‘The Wall of Shame,’ when people have images reframed of loved ones who have been cut out of photographs. “There’s a reason the in-laws are always at the end of family group photos,” says Mike. They’ve framed paintings hanging in the Smithsonian Air and Space museum in Washington, DC, Norman Rockwell originals, as well as a Picasso. “We refer to it as the art of framing. Your frame is as important as the art itself.”

Wrapping up, I ask about the future and the changes Fairhope has seen over the years. “We understand why people want to live here. I hope they will take the time to learn about our history and what makes this area special. “People are moving here faster than we can piss the old ones off,” Mike laughs. “We try to stay relevant and keep our feet in the pool.”

Kelley’s grandmother, Betty Joe Wolff, who is an institution in her own right, was best friends with Fannie Flagg. Kelley described them as a generation of strong Southern matriarchs who left an indelible mark on their communities. In keeping, Kelley tells me that Mike started the Sunset Rotary Club with the help of friends and created the Fairhope Steak Cook-off fundraiser with Charlie Baumhower. “They’ve cleared over a million dollars for local charities,” she says proudly. 

Community involvement is important, and on September 5, Lyons Share hosted "Six Architects: In Celebration of 50 Years of Friendship," a gathering of artists who came together to share their artistic insights through a life of creativity. 

I truly enjoyed my visit with Mike and Kelley. They were delightful, with plenty of great stories and knowledge to share about artists and history. Be sure to stop by every First Friday when they host a special artist’s exhibit.

Thanks so much. That was fun!