Who Is Christy Walton?

Christy Walton is one of the world’s wealthiest people and one of the top philanthropists globally. She inherited her wealth from her husband, John Walton, son of Walmart founder Sam Walton, who died in a 2005 plane crash while flying an experimental plane near Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Early Life and Education

Christy (Tallant) Walton is by all accounts a very private individual who grew up in and around Jackson, Wyo., where she was born on Feb. 8, 1949. Her parents' names are not listed in any record of note, and according to Forbes magazine, she graduated from high school but did not have a college degree. There has been very little written about her life before meeting John Walton. Even his obituary in The New York Times does not list the date of their marriage, nor anything about Christy, other than her name as the surviving spouse.

She had one son, Lukas, during her marriage to John Walton, who was diagnosed with cancer at the age of three. Walton claims his tumor was eradicated by eating an all-organic diet.

Notable Accomplishments

Walton produced the film adaptation of Rudolfo Anaya’s book Bless Me, Ultima in 2012. A year later, the film won four awards, from the Imagen Foundation, which promotes employment and positive images of Latinos in television and film. Walton herself took home the President's Award.

Wealth and Philanthropy

Walton is perhaps best known for her philanthropic giving to organizations across the nation. Walton is a board member emeritus of the Children's Scholarship Fund, an organization that makes private education affordable for low-income children, her husband John co-founded in 1998.  She also gives to numerous nonprofits, including the San Diego Natural History Museum, World Mosquito Program, and Olivewood Gardens.

Forbes magazine called Walton the world's richest woman. Still, in 2015, an analysis of court documents by Bloomberg led the business news source to conclude that rather than being worth $37 billion, she was worth $5 billion. As a whole, the family wealth of the living Waltons during that time was estimated at over $100 billion, but in the case of Christy Walton, her son Lukas Walton received the largest amount of inheritance from his deceased father.

In addition to her giving, Walton is on the board of the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation, which has its pet projects. As of 2020, her family's foundation donated $749.5 million in grants to create access to opportunities for people and communities. Receivers of the family's generosity must work to improve K-12 education, protect waterways and their communities, and invest in their home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta.

The Bottom Line

While much has been written about Christy Walton's wealth and philanthropic endeavors, there is very little information about her early years, her marriage to John Walton, and her own family. She never remarried after the death of her husband and continues to live in Wyoming where she grew up.