Alice Louise Walton (born October 7, 1949) is an American heiress to the fortune of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. She is the daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and Helen Walton, and sister of S. Robson Walton, Jim Walton and the late John T. Walton. With a net worth of $40.8 billion she is the second wealthiest woman on earth, according to Forbes. In September 2016 she was reported to own over US$11 billion in Walmart shares. She has been arrested multiple times for driving while intoxicated, and in 1989, she was involved in the speeding death of a 50-year-old woman, Oleta Hardin, a cannery worker, but no charges were filed.
Education and career
Walton was born in Newport, Arkansas. She graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, with a B.A. in economics and finance. She began her career in finance as an equity analyst and money manager for First Commerce Corporation and later served as vice chairperson and head of all investment-related activities at the Arvest Bank Group. In 1988, Walton founded Llama Company, an investment bank engaged in corporate finance, public and structured finance, real estate finance and sales and trading. She served as President, Chairperson and CEO. For a time, she was a broker for E.F. Hutton.
She was the first chairperson and driving force behind the Northwest Arkansas Council. This community development organization played a major role in securing the development of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport. Walton arranged for and provided the initial seed capital to finance the construction of the airport. Her involvement was instrumental in the creation of the airport, and in recognition of her contribution to the airport project and her support of transportation improvements throughout the region, the Airport Authority Board of Directors named the airport terminal the Alice L. Walton Terminal Building. In 2001, Walton was inducted into the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame.
In the late 1990s, Walton closed Llama Company and moved to a 3,200-acre (1,300 ha) ranch in Millsap, Texas, named Walton’s Rocking W Ranch. An avid horse-lover, Walton currently lives in a sprawling one-story, 4,432-square-foot (411.7 m2), stucco house on the horse ranch. She is known for having an eye for determining which 2-month-olds will grow to be champion cutters.
In his 1992 autobiography Made in America, Sam Walton remarked that Alice was “the most like me—a maverick—but even more volatile than I am.”
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