Lexington clothier Carl Meyers dies unexpectedly

Carl Meyers, a longtime Lexington clothier who specialized in equestrian and upscale apparel, died unexpectedly Monday evening.

He was 64, according to his longtime friend Sue Wylie, a Lexington TV and radio personality.

A cause of death was not immediately available. A friend, Alan Garrett, said Meyers apparently died in an ambulance on his way to a hospital after collapsing.

Wiley said Meyers had a history of heart trouble and had undergone heart surgery in 2014.

“I was good friends with his parents,” Wylie said. “In fact, his mother was one of my best friends. I’ve known Carl since he was a teenager.

“He had many, many friends. The Meyers family was a huge part of Lexington for decades. It’s so very sad.”

Meyers most recently operated the Carl Meyers boutique at 111 Clay Avenue.

Meyers grew up in a retailing family. From 1938 to 1967, the Meyers store was on West Main Street next to Purcell’s department store, run by Meyers’ parents, Marvin and Sydelle Meyers. In 1967, the store moved east, to the corner of what is now Martin Luther King Boulevard.

After Lexington’s big downtown stores moved or closed, the Meyers family opened stores in Fayette and Lexington malls. The downtown store closed in 1982, the mall stores in 1984.

Meyers sold custom riding apparel from a shop he ran first on Walton Avenue and later on Romany Road. From 2007 to 2010, he lived in New York, but he returned to Lexington to open a store for the World Equestrian Games on Clay Avenue. That became the site of the store that he was operating at the time of his death.

Milward Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements, which are pending, according to Keith Dillon, a funeral director there.

This story was originally published November 23, 2016 at 11:26 AM with the headline "Lexington clothier Carl Meyers dies unexpectedly."