INTERNATIONAL
Abide Ag-Aero Closes After 61 Years L-R, Tommy Lewis, Charlene Heafner and Harold Powers
A 30 | agairupdate.com
After decades serving ag operators and pilots in the Mississippi Delta, Harold Powers, Jr. will go into well-deserved retirement and shutter the business that he helped build since 1959. Air Tractor parts distributor Abide Ag-Aero, a staple in Mississippi agricultural aviation, is closing after 61 years. “I started with Mr. Abide in April of 1959, and it was just me and him handling the business,” Powers recalls. “We sold Air Tractor airplanes and Air Tractor parts. I took care of the parts business and Mr. Abide took care of the airplane sales.” Major Lee Cody Abide was a professional pilot, aerobatics instructor and crop duster before entering the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942. During WWII, Abide ferried airplanes, then transferred to the China-Burma-India theater and was stationed with the U.S. Air Transport Command in Jorhat, India. He flew B-24 and C-87 Liberator transport airplanes over “The Hump,” from India above the Himalaya peaks into China. After the war,
Abide returned to his crop dusting business and eventually began selling Air Tractor aircraft as an official dealer. He founded Abide Ag-Aero in 1959, and a young Powers helped run the shop. When Abide passed away in 1990, Powers approached Air Tractor founder Leland Snow and asked him if he could keep the parts business of the dealership. “I didn’t have the ag aviation knowledge, or the money to do the Air Tractor airplane sales part of the dealership,” Powers said. “Leland agreed to let me continue as the Air Tractor parts distributor in Mississippi. Leland was a great man, and very humble. All the Air Tractor people I’ve dealt with were good people. It’s like a big family. And so was Gene Williams, the Air Tractor parts man who I worked with before Jeff Dobbs, the current Air Tractor Customer Service manager.” Jim Hirsch, president of Air Tractor, said Abide Ag-Aero is a piece of ag aviation history. “It has always been a pleasure doing business with Harold and Abide Ag-Aero,” Hirsch said. “It is people like
