Erin Napier Mourns Aunt Mae Mae, Namesake of Her Daughter, Amid Home Town Season 11

HGTV star Erin Napier is mourning her aunt Marilyn — known to family and fans as Mae Mae — after announcing her death in an Instagram post on Wednesday, Nov. 4. The co-host of Home Town described her aunt as a “very special” relative whose gift was loving people, according to USA TODAY and TV Insider.

Napier and her husband, Ben Napier, are filming Season 11 of Home Town in Laurel, Mississippi. The family loss comes less than a week after the couple won a 2026 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Instructional/How-To Program for Season 3 of Home Town Takeover.

What did Erin Napier say about Aunt Mae Mae?

In her Nov. 4 Instagram tribute, Napier wrote that fans who met Mae Mae as a greeter at the couple’s Laurel retail stores would not forget her. “Her gift was loving people. Loving meeting them, talking to them,” she wrote, according to USA TODAY. “She worked in retail her entire life and could teach a master class in service.”

Napier recalled childhood days when her mother worked as a part-time realtor and Mae Mae watched her. She described walking trails in the woods on a hill where four generations of her family have lived, collecting leaves for scrapbooks, watching John Wayne movies, learning the presidents, hearing Elvis songs and hearing about Jesus.

“She saw my creative gifts and knew exactly how to nurture them, helping raise up a professional artist without even realizing it,” Napier wrote, as quoted by TV Insider.

She also tied sensory memories to her aunt — the smell of Ivory soap, baths in a cast-iron sink, and little ice cream cones with marshmallows and strawberry jam hidden at the bottom — and said she would forever associate Mae Mae with a laugh that reminded her of a goose.

Why is Mae Mae connected to Napier’s daughter?

Erin and Ben Napier share two daughters, Helen and Mae. Erin said that when her “last baby girl” was on the way, she knew what they would name her: Mae, after Aunt Mae Mae. “She was so very special,” Napier wrote. “I so hope she got to meet Elvis today!”

That detail helped explain why the tribute resonated with viewers of Home Town, who often follow the Napiers’ family life alongside the renovation show.

Fans share memories from the Laurel stores

TV Insider reported that fans flooded Instagram comments with condolences and personal memories. One person who said they worked with the family wrote that Mae Mae was “a hoot and a half,” shared stories with staff and customers, and once walked customers out to their car and back into the store to show them a chapter of the Napiers’ book. Another commenter said they met her at the Mercantile and remembered her smile and salesmanship.

How does this fit with Home Town and the Emmy win?

TV Insider noted that the announcement came while Erin and Ben continue filming Season 11 of Home Town, with an air date still listed as TBA on HGTV. On Saturday, Oct. 31, Erin posted that Home Town Takeover: Sebring had won the Emmy the night before. The couple were not at the ceremony, she said, because they were filming in Laurel and did not want to miss one of the few Halloween nights their daughters would trick-or-treat as children.

In that Emmy post, she praised both the Takeover team and the original Laurel Home Town crew for building a show culture that feels like family — a theme that now sits alongside her tribute to the aunt who helped raise her.

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