MOULTRIE — June Maule of Maule Air, Inc., who has been an institution in Colquitt County for more than 40 years, died on Thursday.

She and her husband, B.D., ran the company together until his death in 1995 and she continued on as the president. Over the years she has worked in almost every aspect of building their airplanes.

“I’ve done everything involved in building an airplane except welding. I’ve sewn the upholstery, helped with covering, run lathes, and even helped with the forming of windshields when we still made them in the factory. That’s how Mr. Maule and I did it. We worked together,” she said in a 2000 article in Aviation for Women magazine.

Maule and her husband were both inducted into the Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame, the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame and the International 99’s Forest of Friendship. She has been awarded the Katharine Wright Memorial Award, was inducted into the Women in Aviation International Hall of Fame and was Colquitt County’s Woman of the Year in 2000.

Maule raised five children during her life and most of them are involved in the family business, as are her grandchildren.

Her daughter, Shirley Maule, said she and her mother went on many trips back to Michigan and Pennsylvania to visit. Maule was born and raised in Central Pennsylvania. She said she enjoyed the trips with her mother and knew that her mother had enjoyed them, too.

“It was kind of hard to keep up with her,” she said laughing.

She also said that her mother loved people and being around the public.

“Everybody loved my mother. She was just grassroots,” she said.

“She loved to talk about her children,” said Ila Massey who knew her from the Moultrie Senior Center and the Staggerwing Country Jamboree.

Massey also said Maule liked to dance and would sometimes dance at the pilot’s lounge on Friday nights.

“I really enjoyed Ms. Maule. ... She was just a person you enjoyed being around,” she said.

Judy Hiers, director of the Moultrie Senior Center, said that Maule didn’t go to the center a lot because she was busy with work but when she did she was a lot of fun.

“She always liked to come on Tuesdays and Fridays to play bingo. She loved to play bingo. ... She was a lot of fun to talk to. She had a good sense of humor about her,” she said.

Hiers said she remembered that Maule always has the prettiest walking sticks and one of them was clear like glass and had butterflies and flowers inside of it.