Alice Walton

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Alice Louise Walton (born October 7, 1949) is an American billionaire and heiress to the fortune of Walmart as daughter of founder Sam Walton. As of July 2025, Walton has an estimated net worth of $116 billion, making her the richest woman in the world and 15th richest overall, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.<ref name=Bloomberg>Template:Cite news</ref>

Early life and education

Walton was born in Newport, Arkansas.<ref name="Tedlow" /> She was raised along with her three brothers in Bentonville, Arkansas, and graduated from Bentonville High School in 1966. She graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, with a B.A. in economics.<ref name="OConnor2013">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=Forbes>Template:Cite web</ref>

Career

File:Alice Walton (cropped).jpg
Walton at the 2011 Walmart Shareholders meeting

Early in her career, Walton was an equity analyst and money manager for First Commerce Corporation<ref name="Hosticka 15">Template:Cite news</ref> and headed investment activities at Arvest Bank Group.<ref name="Gill 12">Template:Cite news</ref> She was also a broker for EF Hutton.<ref name="OConnor2013"/> In 1988, Walton founded Llama Company, an investment bank, where she was president, chairwoman, and CEO.<ref name="Hosticka 15" /><ref name="Gill 12" />

Walton was the first person to chair the Northwest Arkansas Council and played a major role in the development of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, which opened in 1998.<ref name="The New Yorker">Template:Cite magazine</ref> 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.<ref name="AP May 1999">Template:Cite news</ref> Walton provided $15 million in initial funding for construction, and Llama Company underwrote a $79.5 million bond.<ref name="AP May 1999"/> 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.<ref name="AP August 1999">Template:Cite news</ref> She was inducted into the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame in 2001.<ref name="Cottingham 10">Template:Cite news</ref>

Llama Company closed in 1998.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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."<ref name="The New Yorker"/>

Art

Walton and her mother would often paint watercolors on camping trips.<ref name="The New Yorker" /> The first piece of art Walton purchased was a print of Picasso's Blue Nude when she was ten years old; it cost her 5 weeks allowance.<ref name="Town & Country"/> Her first museum quality artwork purchase was of two Winslow Homer watercolors in the late 1980s.<ref name="Town & Country">Template:Cite news</ref>

In December 2004, Walton purchased art sold from the collection of Daniel and Rita Fraad at Sotheby's, in New York.<ref name="The New Yorker" /> In 2005, Walton purchased Asher Brown Durand's celebrated painting, Kindred Spirits, in a sealed-bid auction for a purported US$35 million.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The 1849 painting, a tribute to Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole, had been given to the New York Public Library in 1904 by Julia Bryant, the daughter of Romantic poet and New York newspaper publisher William Cullen Bryant, who is depicted in the painting with Cole.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She has also purchased works by American painters Winslow Homer and Edward Hopper, as well as a notable portrait of George Washington by Charles Willson Peale,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> in preparation for the opening of Crystal Bridges.<ref>Crystal Bridges website Template:Webarchive</ref> In 2009, Walton acquired Norman Rockwell's "Rosie the Riveter" for $4.9 million.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Walton's attempt to quit smoking inspired her to purchase a painting reminiscent of an earlier painting by John Singer Sargent by Alfred Maurer which depicts a full-length woman smoking.<ref name="The New Yorker"/> Another painting, by Tom Wesselmann, titled "Smoker #9"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> depicts a hyper realistic, disembodied hand and mouth smoking a cigarette.<ref name="The New Yorker"/>

In a 2011 interview, she spoke about acquiring great works by other artists, including Marsden Hartley and Andrew Wyeth, saying that she loved the emotion and spirituality they expressed.<ref name="The New Yorker" /> Other artists whose work Walton has purchased include Georgia O'Keeffe, Mark Rothko, Edward Hopper, Kehinde Wiley, and Titus Kaphar.<ref name="WSJ Sept2021">Template:Cite news</ref>

File:Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art--2012-04-12.jpg
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas

Walton's interest in art led to the Walton Family Foundation developing the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The architect Moshe 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.<ref name="WMag Oct2021"/><ref name="WSJ Sept2021"/>

Political activity

Walton was the 20th-largest individual contributor to 527 committees in the U.S. presidential election 2004, donating US$2.6 million to the conservative Progress for America group.<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref> As of January 2012, Walton had contributed $200,000 to Restore Our Future, the super PAC associated with Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Walton donated $353,400 to the Hillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee supporting Hillary Clinton and other Democrats, in 2016.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Philanthropy

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.<ref name="Fortune Jan2016">Template:Cite web</ref>

Walton formed the Alice L. Walton Foundation in 2017.<ref name="InsidePhilanthropy July2022"/><ref name="WMag Oct2021"/> The foundation promotes arts, education, health, and improving economic opportunity.<ref name="InsidePhilanthropy July2022"/> In 2020, the foundation gave the University of Central Arkansas $3 million in funding for its fine arts program.<ref name="TB&P Oct2020">Template:Cite news</ref> That year, the foundation also gave a $1.28 million grant to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to expand its program to provide healthy food in schools.<ref name="TB&P May2020">Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name="KFSM Oct2022">Template:Cite news</ref>

Also in 2017, Walton formed the Art Bridges Foundation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="WMag Oct2021">Template:Cite news</ref> 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 the Ford Foundation through Art Bridges to fund programs to improve diversity in arts leadership.<ref name="FF May2022">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="InsidePhilanthropy July2022">Template:Cite web</ref>

Healthcare

In 2019, Walton established the Whole Health Institute. The institute works with health systems, employers and communities to build and expand access to holistic healthcare.<ref name="InsidePhilanthropy July2022"/> In March 2021, Walton announced that the institute would build a non-profit medical school in Bentonville called the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine. The school will focus on allopathic medicine and graduates will receive a doctor of medicine degree.<ref name="KTLO March2021">Template:Cite web</ref> The campus will be located near Crystal Bridges. Construction began in 2023, with the first class enrolling in 2025, pending accreditation.<ref name="TB&P June2022">Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2021, the Alice L. Walton Foundation partnered with the Cleveland Clinic to evaluate health care in Northwest Arkansas. Following that evaluation, in 2022, the foundation and Washington Regional Medical System announced plans to create a non-profit medical system aimed at training doctors in specialty care fields such as oncology, cardiology, and neurology.<ref name="Axios April2022">Template:Cite news</ref>

Personal life

Walton married a prominent Louisiana investment banker in 1974 at age 24. They were divorced two and a half years later. According to Forbes, she married "the contractor who built her swimming pool" soon after, "but they, too, divorced quickly".<ref name="Forbes" /><ref name="OConnor2013"/>

Walton has been involved in multiple automobile accidents, one of them fatal to a pedestrian. She lost control of a rented Jeep during a 1983 Thanksgiving family reunion near Acapulco 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.<ref name="OConnor2013" /> 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.<ref name="OConnor2013"/> In 1998, she hit a gas meter while driving under the influence of alcohol. She paid a $925 fine.<ref name="OConnor2013"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1998, Walton moved to a ranch in Millsap, Texas, named Walton's Rocking W Ranch.<ref name="OConnor2013"/><ref name="Paul 06">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="AP December 1999">Template:Cite news</ref> An avid horse-lover, she was known for having an eye for determining which 2-month-olds would grow to be champion cutters.<ref name="Kansas City Star">Template:Cite news</ref> Walton listed the farm for sale in 2015 and moved to Fort Worth, Texas, citing the need to focus on the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.<ref name="Baker 16">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Sherman 15">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="NPR 11">Template:Cite news</ref> She moved back to Bentonville in 2020.<ref name="Town & Country" />

Recognition

References

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