HGTV Star Erin Napier Announces Devastating Family Loss

Erin Napier is mourning a tragic family loss as she and Ben Napier continue to film Season 11 of HGTV‘s Home Town.

In a Wednesday, November 4, Instagram post, Erin revealed that her Aunt Mae Mae had passed away earlier that day. “If any of you met her when she worked as a greeter at our stores, you did not forget her. Her gift was loving people. Loving meeting them, talking to them,” she wrote. “She worked in retail her entire life and could teach a master class in service.”

Erin recalled working alongside her aunt as a child. “When I was very young and my mama was a part-time realtor she kept me on the days mama had to work. She walked me through the trails in the woods on the hill where 4 generations of my family have lived,” the TV personality said. “We collected leaves, and glued them into scrapbooks. She showed me the John Wayne movies I needed to know. She taught me the presidents, and we drew them for my scrapbook too. She sang Elvis to me, and told me about Jesus. She saw my creative gifts and knew exactly how to nurture them, helping raise up a professional artist without even realizing it.”

Erin joked that her aunt’s laugh reminded her of a goose, adding, “For the rest of my life I will smell Ivory soap and remember the way she bathed me in her cast iron sink and fed me little ice cream cones with marshmallows and strawberry jam hidden in the bottom. She was so very special, when my last baby girl was on the way I knew what we would name her. Mae. I so hope she got to meet Elvis today!” (Erin and Ben share daughters Helen and Mae.)

Fans flooded the comments with their condolences for Erin and her family. “She was a hoot and a half! All of our staff just loved her. She’d share so many stories with us and the customers,” one user wrote. “I once saw her walk customers out to their car and then back into the store. She wanted to show them a chapter of y’all’s book. She was so special and so proud of yall.”

Someone else shared, “I had the pleasure of meeting your Aunt Mae at the Mercantile and yes she met us with a smile. She was a great salesperson also!” Another fan added, “I’m sorry. The older I get, the more I realize that these losses of the people who made us who we are, are so deep. Even if they’ve had a long life. Loved reading how she helped shaped you.”

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A different person posted, “We met her while visiting the store. She walked out with us after making purchases and talked with us for several minutes. Delightful and we still talk about her 7 years later. Sweet sweet lady.”

Erin’s family loss comes less than a week after she and Ben won a 2026 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Instructional/How-To Program for Season 3 of Home Town Takeover. “Last night, our show Home Town Takeover: Sebring won the Emmy!” Erin wrote via Instagram on Saturday, October 31. “We weren’t there to receive the honor because we are filming in Laurel and couldn’t stand to miss one of the handful of times our girls will trick or treat in their short childhoods.”

She continued, “The team that made that show worked through so much: challenges and personal loss, but also built a show culture that is rare, like a family, a support system of friends and colleagues, just like the one we also have in Laurel. Takeover won the Emmy, standing on the shoulders of the original Laurel Home Town team who laid the foundation of what loving small town America looks like, feels like, believes. So cheers to these two teams. What a great and special honor to be part of them both.

Home Town, Season 11, TBA, HGTV

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