Ledwell Team

Kyle Edwards has worked at Ledwell in the Break and Shear Shop for the past 16 years. He operates a press brake to bend various steel and aluminum parts. Kyle’s favorite part about his job is teaming up with great friends to produce a quality product for the company.

Kyle likes to spend time with his family, hunt, fish and coach softball. Kyle and his wife Misty have two daughters, Kyleigh and Baylee.

“Kyle is really good at what he does. He is very dependable and a hard worker. ” – Johnny Goll

Santiago Simon has worked at Ledwell for the last decade, mainly in the Fabrication Shop. He welds parts together to make Rollback sub-assemblies and various other parts for equipment. Santiago enjoys seeing the end result of equipment built with the parts he manufactures.

When asked his favorite part about Ledwell he said, “Ledwell is the family like environment. The thing that I will always remember and miss is when we had gatherings and Mr. Buddy would tell his jokes.”

Santiago has been married for 22 years to Roxanne. They have four wonderful children Salvador, Enrique, Domingo and Jennifer, as well as one grandchild, Salvador Jr. In his spare time, Santiago enjoys a good book. If you pass him during break you will catch him reading. While at home, if he is not reading he is working in the yard.

“Santiago works hard every day, he is reliable and motivated to do a good job.” Brad Stringer

This year marks Wayne’s 25th anniversary at Ledwell.

He has been working in the Feed Body Shop since he started in 1990 focusing on sub-frames and axles.

Wayne’s hobbies include fishing, hunting and bull riding.

When asked about a favorite memory, Wayne said, “Mr. Buddy made me come eat steak after hay season was over. I still remember that it was 106 degrees that day”.

“Wayne is at work every day and knows the work that has to be done, and gets it done.” – Mike Harris

Wayne May has worked at Ledwell for 33 years. He started in shipping and receiving and now works in the main office checking in new trucks and invoicing shop repair work orders. His favorite part of his job is the variety of going outside to inventory the trucks and staying inside creating invoices.

One of Wayne’s memorable projects was delivering a feed body truck to Dierks, AR. “After working at Ledwell for a couple of years, Mr. Ledwell asked me if I knew how to drive and when I said yes, he told me to deliver a truck. He always reminded us whose name is on the sign out front.”

Wayne has been married to his wife, Nora, for 12 years. He has two children, Michael and Angela and one grandson, Ethan. When not working, Wayne loves to travel especially to visit family in east Texas and Louisiana.

Ricky Green has worked at Ledwell since 1974 in the Trailer shop. He did venture out to the Truck shop and Feedbody at times when help was needed. Ricky’s main project in the Trailer shop is to design and build each new Hydratail trailer. His favorite part about working at Ledwell is designing a new project and watching the finished equipment leave with its new owner.

Ricky has many stories to share but the first one that always comes to mind  includes a late night and flying feed. “We were working late one night trying to get a feed body ready to leave out. When we turned on the discharge and feed went everywhere. Mr. Ledwell was standing close to where feed was falling. He and all of us were dodging the feed that went flying everywhere.”

Ricky likes to hunt and cook during his free time. He also has a small non-profit business he runs out of his shop at home.

Larry Plant started working at Ledwell in 1971 when there was about 30 employees. “When I interviewed, Mr. Ledwell asked me if I could weld. I said ‘No, sir.’ He asked me if I could use a cutting torch. I said ‘No, sir.’ He asked me if I was a mechanic. I said ‘No, sir.’ He then asked me when I could start. I said ‘Right now.'”

After spending two days in the feed body shop proving he could not weld or cut, he moved to shipping and receiving. He spent two years in shipping and receiving before moving to the Parts Counter where Larry has spent the majority of his career at Ledwell. Larry’s main focus is helping customers order parts for the various types of equipment Ledwell manufactures. His favorite part about his job is meeting new customers and interacting with all types of people.

Larry has been married to his wife Vicki for 41 years and they have two children, a son Brad and a daughter Ashley. When he is not a work Larry enjoys hunting and fishing.

Holley has spent the last 25 years working in the Feed Body Shop at Ledwell. His work focuses mostly on paddle booms and feed equipment parts. He enjoys building different things on a daily basis.

He has been married to his wife, Jenny, for 25 years and they have two kids and three grandkids. Holley likes to hunt, fish and cook with friends.

“One of the most memorable events was working for Mr. Ledwell on his gates at the Farm. I couldn’t ask for a better family to work for.”

“Holley is a dependable worker. He builds quality parts and is good for a story sometimes.” – Mike Harris

Mark has worked at Ledwell since 1992, and this year marks his 22nd anniversary.

While he has spent the majority of his years in the Feed Body Shop, he started his career working in the Truck Shop for William Griffin. “William was a good man to work for. About six months into it, I was lucky enough to have my appendix taken from me and Mr. Griffin put me on the ‘sick, lame or lazy’ list and sent me to the Machine Shop to heal up. The Machine Shop looked like really cool work and I wanted in. I spent the next 3+ years working for Boots Thomas”. Mark has spent the last 18 plus years in the Feed Shop where he mostly builds keels for the feed bodies.

“A former co-worker and I were doing something one day when Mr. Buddy rolled up on us. He asked us why we were doing it that way. Instead of us asking him how he wanted it done, in our youth, we proceeded to tell him why we were doing things our way. He politely said, “Oh son, do y’all need me to take y’all down to the other end of the street so y’all can take my name off that sign and put y’alls name up there since you know so much?” The man had a cool way of making a point!”

“A memorable project I have worked on at Ledwell was building a simple table for a co-worker to use to work on. When it comes to pride in my work, I can be a little OCD. My foreman told someone about halfway through my project that when I finished, you would be able to balance a ball bearing in the center of it. So when I finished, I formed a half inch bearing, drew center lines and put it to the test! Not only would it balance, but we dropped it 3 times from about 8 inches high and it stuck dead center every time. I still have the pictures on my phone to prove it!”

When not working, Mark likes to relax with a good friend, a golf cart and an ice chest. He also enjoys shooting. “I’ve always like shooting since I was very young. At 10 or 11 years old, I split a 50 caliber round ball on a double blade axe in competition. 1 shot, 1 time.” Mark and his wife Dyan have two kids, daughter Sophia (8) and son Kik (5).

“Mark is one of our top welders. He makes sure he puts out great parts.” – Mike Harris

Sean has worked in the Break and Shear Shop for the past 9 years other than the few months he spent in the Saw Shop after breaking his leg in a skydiving accident. He is responsible for producing parts for almost every project that Ledwell is involved in.

“My favorite part about my job is the hands-on aspect. When I’m driving down the road and I see a water tank, rollback, feed body, or pretty much anything with the Ledwell name on it, it’s kind of neat knowing that I had some type of hand in building that piece of equipment.”

When not working, Sean spends as much time with his son, Aiden (6), as possible. They love playing baseball and going to Rangers games together. Sean also hunts, fishes and collects sports memorabilia.

Sean’s most memorable moment at Ledwell occurred when he first started working for the company. “Mr. Ledwell picked me up outside the Feed Body Shop and ask me to help him close some gates. In that time, he shared his love and passion for Ledwell with me. Although it was a short ride and visit, he opened my eyes and showed me that there is more to Ledwell than just a place that I show up to every day to do a job. Family and passion built this company.”

“I’m always proud to say ‘Ledwell’ when asked where I work!”

“Sean is a very dependable and hard worker. He is really good at what he does and very talented. I am proud to have him in my department. ” – Johnny Goll

Rene Antillon has been working at Ledwell fourteen years. He currently works in the Feed Body Shop, but has spent time working in the Truck Shop, Hydraulic Shop, Parts Shop, Tank Shop, Machine Shop and at Ledwell Farm.

Rene’s main focus is working on new projects that require precise measurements. He also teaches new employees how to weld and all he has learned through the years.

“My favorite part about my job is doing new and different project and being satisfied about my work quality.”

Outside of work, Rene likes spending time with his family, grilling, relaxing and working on his farm. He has been married to his wife, Belia, for seventeen years and they have two children, Lex (17) and Lilian (15).

“Rene is a very dependable worker and takes pride in putting out quality parts.” – Mike Harris, Feed Body Shop Foreman