Christy Walton was born in 1955 is the wife of late John Thomas Walton who died in 2005 in an aircraft crash. After the death of her husband, she officially inherited $15 billion and has been successfully maintaining the steady growth of her companies and crossed $22.5 billion. She owns a stake in solar power company, First Solar and has her shares of Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart was founded in 1962 by Christy’s father-in-law Sam Walton, who started his career as a clerk for J.C. Penney for $75 a month in1940. And five years later he founded five-and-dime store Benjamin Franklin, Newport and Arkansas. After he died of multiple myeloma in 1992, his son John Walton shouldered the responsibility and became the chairman of the board of Wal-Mart. In 1968, John Walton contributed in Vietnam War as a part of the Studies and Observations Group in the Green Berets and fought bravely in the A Shau Valley and in Laos for which he was honored with a Silver Star. He also received awards and decorations such as Army Commendation Medal, Army Air Medal, Presidential Unit Citation (United States) 2001, Parachutist Badge (United States), Combat Infantryman Badge, and Army Special Forces tab. In 2005, while he was piloting his homebuilt aircraft CGS Hawk Arrow crashed in Jackson, Wyoming, and died.
As of 2011, Wal-Mart had 8400 stores with annual turnover of $405 billion and two million employees
Philanthropic Work:
In 2009, Christy gave away her 7-acre San Diego house to Cross Border Philanthropy.
According to Forbes magazine 2010, she is the world’s 12th richest whose net worth is $22.5 billion.
