Lee Motlow, co-founder of popular Columbia County barbecue restaurant, dies at 63
The co-founder and former co-owner of one of the Augusta area’s most familiar barbecue restaurants has died.
Lee Motlow was 63.
A celebration of life service was held Friday at Wesley United Methodist Church in Evans with the Rev. Greg Porterfield officiating. Interment followed at Westover Memorial Park in Augusta.
Motlow died Aug. 30, just before the Labor Day holiday. In a 1998 interview with The Augusta Chronicle, just two years after Mot’s opened, Motlow said Labor Day had become the restaurant’s second-busiest day.
"It's kind of like the last long weekend for people before the winter,'' he said. "It's just a big weekend.''
Motlow founded Mot’s in 1996 with his then-fiancée, the former Trisha Dils, now Trisha Laughery. While the engagement didn’t last, the business relationship did. When health problems prompted Motlow to step down from the business, Laughery bought him out and still owns and runs Mot’s.
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Customers who patronized Mot’s for the pork barbecue, chicken and beef brisket often returned owing to Motlow’s infectious friendliness. Paying online condolences, Barbara Senesac remembered Motlow as smiling and upbeat.
"I met Lee as a very young adult as he was best friends with my brother-in-law at the time," she said. "Then we connected again when he and Trish opened Mot’s and through the years, as we ran into each other, he always treated me like family. He holds a special place in my heart. He will surely be missed."
Motlow, an avid hunter and fisherman, adored Boykin spaniels and their keen ability to retrieve game birds. Memorial contributions may be made to the Boykin Spaniel Society, 2337 Broad St., Camden, S.C., 29020.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Lee Motlow remembered as restaurateur, sportsman, everyone's friend
