Mary Jones, a steady hand at Deere & Co. for more than a quarter-century who’s been general counsel during a golden age for the 187-year-old company, will retire later this year.

The Moline, Illinois-based company—best known by the moniker John Deere—announced this week that Jones, 55, is stepping aside and will be succeeded as legal chief by Kellye Walker, whose been chief legal officer for the last four years at Eastman Chemical. Before that, she spent five years as chief legal officer of Huntington Ingalls Industries, America’s largest military shipbuilder. Both firms are in the Fortune 500.