It is with deep sadness that I, and my daughters, announce the death of our beloved “Salty” Joyner on November 8th, 2024 at our home in Solomons, MD. At her time of passing, she was under the comfortable care of family and Hospice of the Chesapeake. Several weeks prior to her death I asked if she wanted to have input or write part of her obituary. In true Salty fashion, her response was: “Tom we have been married over 61 years! If you can’t write it, then what the “Heck” was that all about?” So this is my eulogy to the most remarkable woman I ever met. For over 61 years, she was my love, my wife, my best friend, and my most constructive and loving critic. Her death does not define her. Moreover, it is merely a bookend to the preceding 80 years of a full, well lived, engaging life of love, accomplishment and caring.
So, here is Salty’s story: She was born in Pearl River, NY on November 1st 1944 to the late Vincent George Law and Emily Sergeant (nee: Cochran) Law. Her birth announcements stated: “Her name is Emily Helen but we call her Salty”. And Salty is the name she embraced as a child and made her own throughout her adult life. Salty was truly a one-of-a-kind individual. She was a Navy Junior whose parents and grandparents infused a deep understanding and appreciation of travel, literature, history, time, place and people. We met at Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Sanford, Florida on a Sunday in May 1963 and married 2 months later. She was 18, so her father had to sign a legal release granting permission for us to marry. Yet, ironically, she was one of the most mature women I ever met. By this time, she had lived at Midway Island (1947), Hawaii, The Panama Canal Zone, Morocco and 3 stateside Navy Bases. She fully understood, better than I, the term “Navy Wife”, and all its implications for adventure, periodic relocations, long separations and extended single parenting.
In the ensuing years, we had three daughters to whom she was very committed. One daughter describes her as “One of the most intelligent women I have ever met, you were creative, dramatic, charismatic and funny as hell”. Before there were fancy phones with GPS, Salty was a fearless traveler throughout Europe and not afraid to speak the language of whatever country she was visiting. She was a voracious reader and provided our daughters with a never-ending library of books to be read whenever a new trip was in the offing. Whether to Greece or Italy or Portugal, she had the perfect book to be read prior to each trip and was able to relay historical facts to the family throughout our many travels. To this day our family has a deep love for reading and traveling and exploring new cultures, new countries and languages.
Our family arrived in St. Mary’s County in January 1979 under Navy orders. Having lived at 9 Navy Bases over the previous 16 years, Salty immediately became enchanted with the area and immersed herself in the history, culture and people of Southern Maryland, eventually calling this her first “Forever Home”.
In the early 1980’s Salty worked as an historical interpreter, educator and event’s organizer at Historical St. Mary’s City (HSMC). Her historical interpreter duties frequently meant first- person costumed role playing. For three years Salty was Production Manager for Madrigals Feast Evenings at HSMC. Later in the 1990’s, Salty worked at Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum (JPPM) as part of the inaugural staff. While there, she developed and initiated “Children’s Day on the Farm”, which is still a favorite annual event each Spring.
Salty was also an accomplished writer and interviewer and used these talents to capture and write people’s personal histories for St. Mary’s College of Southern MD “The Mulberry Tree Papers” project and a St. Mary’s County Documentation Project “Remembering Women’s Work In St. Mary’s County 1900-1950”. In 1983, Salty commenced a two year project to cover the 18 month cycle of Tobacco harvest from planting seed to selling the cured harvest at the Hughesville Tobacco Market. In today’s vernacular, she embedded herself with a single family to gain a full understanding of the people and the process. Her in-depth and richly descriptive article, “The Sotweed Legacy”, was and is a lasting tribute to a family and a way of life that has since vanished from our area.
Salty was a committed Lay Reader in the Episcopal Church and was licensed to develop and deliver her own sermons, which were developed from a lay person’s perspective and masterfully written and delivered. She was often asked to provide sermons at other Episcopal churches or deliver a sermon from a previous year.
Salty taught our daughters classic etiquette and how to plan, organize and hostess dinner parties and casual gatherings. In her final months she still had a great fondness for holding block parties and filling our house with friends, family and neighbors. She was very adept at building a sense of community amongst her neighbors. She loved to give people unexpected and clever gifts at parties and for no reason at all. She was especially kind and giving to the people who serve us. Salty felt that her life was generously blessed, always shared with others and over tipped generously to a fault.
Salty was an incredibly creative grandmother who would turn a weeklong visit with the grandkids into a five star cruise. She had a gift for making the sublime into fun, such as using shaving cream to create faces on trees. Her imagination and creativity channeled that of her grandchildren’s into Pirate adventures with treasure maps, buried treasure and costumes. The grandchildren always left happy and eager for their next visit and all new adventures that awaited them.
In addition to her beloved husband, Salty is also survived by her daughters: Helen Elisabeth Joyner Murphy (Douglas) of Richmond, VA, Stephanie Susan Joyner of Wanblee, SD, and Rebecca Noel Joyner of The Hague, Holland; her sister, Karen Helseth (Phillip) of Jacksonville, FL; brother, Robert Law (Letty) of Fort Worth, TX; her grandchildren: Sean, Aiden, Gwen, and Astrid; and extended family and friends. She is preceded in death by her parents.
A Celebration of Life will be held at Asbury Solomons, Retirement Community, Solomons, MD on Friday, June 27th, 2025 at 02:00 PM in the auditorium followed by a reception.
A memorial service of remembrance will be held at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, California, MD on Saturday, June 28, 2025 at 11:00 AM. Subsequent to the service, a reception will be held in the Parish Hall followed by a service of inurnment at Trinity Church Memorial Gardens & Columbaria in Historic St. Mary’s City, Maryland.
Condolences may be made to the family at www.brinsfieldfuneral.com
In lieu of flowers, it is requested that contributions be made to St. Andrews Episcopal Church, for the “Lakota College Scholarship Fund for Deserving Students”. Mail to: St. Andrews Episcopal Church, 44078 St. Andrews Church Road, California MD 20619
Arrangements by the Brinsfield Funeral Home, P.A., Leonardtown, MD.
