Alice Walton | |
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.jpg) Walton in 2021 | |
| Born | Alice Louise Walton (1949-10-07)October 7, 1949 (age 75)[1] Newport, Arkansas, U.S. |
| Education | Trinity University (BA) |
| Known for | Heiress,Walton family fortune |
| Political party | Independent |
| Board member of | Amon Carter Museum of American Art |
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Alice Louise Walton (born October 7, 1949) is an American heiress to the fortune ofWalmart as daughter of founderSam Walton. In September 2016, she owned over $11 billion in Walmart shares.[2] As of February 2025, Walton has a net worth of $121 billion, making her the 13th richest person and therichest woman in the world according toBloomberg Billionaires Index, afterFrançoise Bettencourt Meyers.[3]
Walton was born inNewport, Arkansas.[1] She was raised along with her three brothers in Bentonville, Arkansas, and graduated from Bentonville High School in 1966. She graduated fromTrinity University inSan Antonio, Texas, with a B.A. in economics.[4][5]
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Early in her career, Walton was anequity analyst andmoney manager for First Commerce Corporation[6] and headed investment activities at Arvest Bank Group.[7] She was also a broker forEF Hutton.[4] In 1988, Walton foundedLlama Company, an investment bank, where she was president, chairwoman, and CEO.[6][7]
Walton was the first person to chair theNorthwest Arkansas Council and played a major role in the development of theNorthwest Arkansas Regional Airport, which opened in 1998.[8] At the time, the business and civic leaders of Northwest Arkansas Council found a need for the $109 million regional airport in their corner of the state.[9] Walton provided $15 million in initial funding for construction, and Llama Company underwrote a $79.5 million bond.[9] The Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport Authority recognized Walton's contributions to the creation of the airport and named the terminal the Alice L. Walton Terminal Building.[10] She was inducted into the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame in 2001.[11]
Llama Company closed in 1998.[12]
In his 1992 autobiographyMade in America,Sam Walton remarked that Alice was "the most like me—a maverick—but even more volatile than I am."[8]
Walton and her mother would often paint watercolors on camping trips.[8] The first piece of art Walton purchased was a print ofPicasso'sBlue Nude when she was ten years old; it cost her 5 weeks allowance.[13] Her first museum quality artwork purchase was of twoWinslow Homer watercolors in the late 1980s.[13]
In December 2004, Walton purchased art sold from the collection of Daniel and Rita Fraad atSotheby's, in New York.[8] In 2005, Walton purchasedAsher Brown Durand's celebrated painting,Kindred Spirits, in asealed-bid auction for a purported US$35 million.[14] The 1849 painting, a tribute toHudson River School painterThomas Cole, had been given to theNew York Public Library in 1904 by Julia Bryant, the daughter of Romantic poet and New York newspaper publisherWilliam Cullen Bryant, who is depicted in the painting with Cole.[15] She has also purchased works by American painters Winslow Homer andEdward Hopper, as well as a notable portrait ofGeorge Washington byCharles Willson Peale,[16] in preparation for the opening of Crystal Bridges.[17] In 2009, Walton acquiredNorman Rockwell's "Rosie the Riveter" for $4.9 million.[18]
Walton's attempt to quit smoking inspired her to purchase a painting reminiscent of an earlier painting byJohn Singer Sargent byAlfred Maurer which depicts a full-length woman smoking.[8] Another painting, byTom Wesselmann, titled "Smoker #9"[19] depicts a hyper realistic, disembodied hand and mouth smoking a cigarette.[8]
In a 2011 interview, she spoke about acquiring great works by other artists, includingMarsden Hartley andAndrew Wyeth, saying that she loved the emotion and spirituality they expressed.[8] Other artists whose work Walton has purchased includeGeorgia O'Keeffe,Mark Rothko,Edward Hopper,Kehinde Wiley, andTitus Kaphar.[20]
Walton's interest in art led to the Walton Family Foundation developing theCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art inBentonville, Arkansas. The architectMoshe Safdie designed the 200,000 square foot museum, which was built on 120 acres of Walton family land. Crystal Bridges opened in 2011 and has been visited more than 5 million times as of 2021. It is free to attend. Walton says her motivation for the museum was to give access to art to people who had never had it.[21][20]
Alice Walton was the 20th-largest individual contributor to 527 committees in theU.S. presidential election 2004, donating US$2.6 million to the conservativeProgress for America group.[22] As of January 2012, Walton had contributed $200,000 toRestore Our Future, thesuper PAC associated withMitt Romney's presidential campaign.[23] Walton donated $353,400 to theHillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee supportingHillary Clinton and otherDemocrats, in 2016.[24]
In 2016, Walton donated $225 million among a total $407 million from Walmart heirs to the Walton Family Holdings Trust, which finances the family's philanthropy.[25]
Walton formed the Alice L. Walton Foundation in 2017.[26][21] The foundation promotes arts, education, health, and improving economic opportunity.[26] In 2020, the foundation gave theUniversity of Central Arkansas $3 million in funding for its fine arts program.[27] That year, the foundation also gave a $1.28 million grant to theUniversity of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to expand its program to provide healthy food in schools.[28] In 2022, Walton's foundation gave a $3.5 million grant to the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank: $3 million to support construction of a food distribution center, and $500,000 to buy and distribute food.[29]
Also in 2017, Walton formed theArt Bridges Foundation.[30] It partners with small and regional museums with less access to cultural resources. The foundation provides funding, collection loans and traveling exhibits, and creates art programs with museums. Walton has said her goal is to reduce the amount of art kept in storage. As of September 2021, the foundation had approximately 30 exhibits traveling throughout the United States.[21] The Arts Bridges Fellows Program provides opportunities for people from historically underrepresented groups to work with its museum partners. Additionally, Walton has given $10 million to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and partnered with theFord Foundation through Art Bridges to fund programs to improve diversity in arts leadership.[31][26]
In 2019, Walton established the Whole Health Institute. The institute works with health systems, employers and communities to build and expand access toholistic healthcare.[26] In March 2021, Walton announced that the institute would build a nonprofit medical school in Bentonville called the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine. The school will focus onallopathic medicine and graduates will receive a doctor of medicine degree.[32] The campus will be located near Crystal Bridges. Construction began in 2023, with the first class enrolling in 2025, pending accreditation.[33]
In 2021, the Alice L. Walton Foundation partnered with theCleveland Clinic to evaluate health care inNorthwest Arkansas. Following that evaluation, in 2022, the foundation and Washington Regional Medical System announced plans to create a nonprofit medical system aimed at training doctors in specialty care fields such as oncology, cardiology, and neurology.[34]
Walton married a prominentLouisiana investment banker in 1974 at age 24. They were divorced two and a half years later. According toForbes, she married "the contractor who built her swimming pool" soon after, "but they, too, divorced quickly".[8][35][4]
Walton has been involved in multiple automobile accidents, one of them fatal. She lost control of a rented Jeep during a 1983 Thanksgiving family reunion nearAcapulco and plunged into a ravine, shattering her leg. She was airlifted out of Mexico and underwent more than two dozen surgeries; she suffers lingering pain from her injuries.[4] In April 1989, she struck and killed 50-year-old Oleta Hardin, who had stepped onto a road in Fayetteville, Arkansas. No charges were filed.[4] In 1998, she hit a gas meter while driving under the influence of alcohol. She paid a $925 fine.[4][36]
In 1998, Walton moved to a ranch inMillsap, Texas, named Walton's Rocking W Ranch.[4][37][38] An avid horse-lover, she was known for having an eye for determining which 2-month-olds would grow to be championcutters.[39] Walton listed the farm for sale in 2015 and moved toFort Worth, Texas, citing the need to focus on the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.[40][41][42] She moved back to Bentonville in 2020.[43]
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