Family Says Goodbye To Salt and Pepper Lady

Family members and friends said goodbye Wednesday to Sparta’s Ms. Ernestine McPeak Boyd, a 60-year collector of salt and pepper shakers.

The 97-year old accumulated an estimated 14,000 shaker sets. Boyd’s daughter Gail Blankenship said she never really knew where her mother’s interest originated. But a speaker at her mother’s funeral got her thinking.

“My mom had a twin sister,” Blankenship said. “And he said ‘you know I wonder if that’s the connection with the sets of salt and pepper shaker.’ Sets of twins and sets of salt and pepper you know, I never thought of it in those terms.”

According to Guinness World Records, the record for most salt and pepper shaker sets is 6,971. Blankenship the family had thought about reaching out to Guinness, but never came to fruition as her mother’s health was declining.

Boyd had started collecting salt and pepper shaker sets when she got the idea of collecting a set from every state as her husband Grady Boyd was a truck driver.

Blankenship said her mother was known as the salt and pepper lady.

“Momma just enjoyed it so much,” Blankenship said. “I mean she was always hunting for salt and pepper shakers that she didn’t have and we were fine with it until it got to be several thousand pairs and then we thought what on earth are you going to do with all of these.”

Blankenship said her mother had shaker sets in every room in the house. Blankenship said her mother bought shakers everywhere she went.

“She was always on the lookout for salt and pepper, Blankenship said. “She found a lot of them at yard sales that other people had collected.”

Once Boyd passed away her family sold her collection and said the shakers would be in good hands. Blankenship said she will always think of her mother when she looks at salt and pepper shakers.