This is Alice Walton, the only daughter of the Late Sam Walton, co-founder of Wal-Mart. She is 64 years old. According to Forbes Magazine she has a personal net worth of $34.9 billion.
I repeat: $34.9 BILLION.
Astoundingly, that only makes her the second richest woman in America, behind her 59 year old Sister-In-Law Christy Walton, the widow Alice’s brother John Walton, who is worth $38 billion. Rounding out the Walton heirs is Alice’s 66-year old brother Jim, worth $36 billion, and 70-year old brother S. Robson, worth $34.8 billion.
Oh yeah, and over on the “poor” side of the family, are Ann’s cousins, 65-year old Ann Walton Kroenke and 63-year old Nancy Walton Laurie, the daughters of Sam Walton’s deceased brother James, who co-founded Wal-Mart, and who are worth $4.5 billion and $4.1 billion respectively.
Forget the 1 Percent, the Waltons are the .0001 Percent.
Alice Walton is known for her philanthropy, which includes sponsoring summer camps for poor kids, although some claim that the Waltons charitable foundation is more of a tax write-off, as well as being a great collector art, building her own art museum in rural Arkansas.
Today a group of Walmart workers staged a protest outside Alice’s $25 million penthouse in New York, complaining about Walmart’s substandard wages and anti-union policies. In an article about the protest, Gawker wrote: Walton is, by most accounts, a nice woman. It would be nice if she would listen to all of these nice people, who have made her rich, but who are themselves poor. And while it does go on to call her a villain for her role in the policies of Wal-Mart, there are some in the comments who defend her. One person wrote.
Anyone who has ever spent any time at Crystal Bridges with Alice knows that her heart is good.
And then later he added: I never did work at Walmart, but as a longtime resident of Benton County, everyone I knew who had regular contact with the family felt differently. The amount of help they have offered the county over the years is remarkable, and usually not publicized. Could Alice have done more? Of course. So could you, and so could I. But to call her a villain is just petty click baiting.
Yes, she sounds like a nice lady. But one important detail this article and that commenter forgot to mention is that Alice Walton is also a murderer.
In April 1989 Alice Walton was driving to work when she hit 50-year old Oleta Hardin with her car and killed her. Alice Walton has been arrested for drunk driving before and after that incident. And you know what happened to Alice Walton after she killed Oleta Hardin? Nothing.
I repeat: NOTHING. No criminal or civil charges were filed. She didn’t get so much as a speeding ticket. That’s it.
And they say money can’t buy happiness…
