1. Alice Louise Walton was born on October 7,1949 and is an American heiress to the fortune of Walmart as daughter of founder Sam Walton.
25 Facts About Alice Walton
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Alice Walton was raised along with her three brothers in Bentonville, Arkansas, and graduated from Bentonville High School in 1966.
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Early in her career, Alice Walton was an equity analyst and money manager for First Commerce Corporation and headed investment activities at Arvest Bank Group.
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In 1988, Alice Walton founded Llama Company, an investment bank, where she was president, chairwoman, and CEO.
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Alice 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.
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Alice Walton provided $15 million in initial funding for construction, and Llama Company underwrote a $79.5 million bond.
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Alice Walton was inducted into the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame in 2001.
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The first piece of art Alice Walton purchased was a print of Picasso's Blue Nude when she was ten years old; it cost her 5 weeks allowance.
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In December 2004, Alice Walton purchased art sold from the collection of Daniel and Rita Fraad at Sotheby's, in New York.
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In 2005, Alice Walton purchased Asher Brown Durand's celebrated painting, Kindred Spirits, in a sealed-bid auction for a purported US$35 million.
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Alice Walton has purchased works by American painters Winslow Homer and Edward Hopper, as well as a notable portrait of George Washington by Charles Willson Peale, in preparation for the opening of Crystal Bridges.
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In 2009, Alice Walton acquired Norman Rockwell's "Rosie the Riveter" for $4.9 million.
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Alice Walton says her motivation for the museum was to give access to art to people who had never had it.
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Alice Walton was the 20th-largest individual contributor to 527 committees in the US presidential election 2004, donating US$2.6 million to the conservative Progress for America group.
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Alice Walton donated $353,400 to the Hillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee supporting Hillary Clinton and other Democrats, in 2016.
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In 2016, Alice Walton donated $225 million among a total $407 million from Walmart heirs to the Alice Walton Family Holdings Trust, which finances the family's philanthropy.
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In 2022, Alice 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.
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Alice Walton has said her goal is to reduce the amount of art kept in storage.
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Additionally, Alice 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.
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Alice Walton married a prominent Louisiana investment banker in 1974 at age 24.
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Alice Walton has been involved in multiple automobile accidents, one of them fatal.
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Alice Walton lost control of a rented Jeep during a 1983 Thanksgiving family reunion near Acapulco and plunged into a ravine, shattering her leg.
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Alice Walton was airlifted out of Mexico and underwent more than two dozen surgeries; she suffers lingering pain from her injuries.
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In 1998, Alice Walton moved to a ranch in Millsap, Texas, named Alice Walton's Rocking W Ranch.
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Alice 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.