When Joannie Byard (Darby) passed away in a vehicle collision on June 9, 2007, she left behind a love of tractors that her family is carrying on in her honor.
In 2002, the family brought home a Farmall 1946 M to be used as a parts tractor, Byard’s ex-husband Bob Darby explained. The machinery has been sitting on the family’s property between Greensburg and St. Paul since that time. Now, her children, Aaron and Bobbie Marie Darby, are working with her brother Arlen Byard and mother Helen Byard to create a new Power of the Past tradition to honor her memory. The family also includes her father James Byard, brother Jimmy Byard and sister Lisa Hawkins.
“Joannie grew up on tractors,” Helen Byard said. “She knew what to do with them.”
Each year, Joannie Byard attended Power of the Past and took part in both light and heavy weight tractor pulls. Her family recalls that she was usually the only woman and often won in both competition classes. The Farmall M she used to pull will be on display in the tractor field this weekend, and in the evenings, it will compete in pulls alongside Bob Darby’s matching machine.
For Byard’s family, beginning this new tradition is completing a task they know she would have done herself.
“Mom always thought it would be neat to keep kids involved,” Aaron Darby said.
To fulfill her wish, the family will auction the Farmall 1946 M as well as a Club Cadet garden tractor - donated by Richard Fogg - to young people under the age of 16 with the promise that the tractors will be restored and brought back to the show. The proceeds from the sales will be used to purchase another tractor for next year to keep the passion for tractors alive.
“The money doesn’t really matter,” Arlen Byard said. “We just want to see kids get involved.”
Bobbie Darby pointed out that her mother’s wish would be for the tractors to be restored to their original colors and grandeur.
“Tractors and painting were her passions,” she said.
Byard’s children both recalled their mother having a booth of her paintings at Power of the Past, and her relationship with the local group as well as a group in Knightstown was such that when she lost her hair to cancer, the two organizations worked together to get her a wig.
It is in this spirit of giving that Byard’s family is working to build longevity for the 20-year-strong antique machinery show.
“We see this as something a grandfather and grandson could do together,” Arlen Byard said.
“Once kids get to be 17 or 18, they are too into cars to care about tractors,” Aaron Darby echoed. “We want them to get started young and keep with it.”
The two tractors will be auctioned at the end of Sunday’s auction, which begins at 9 a.m.
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