KEY POINTS:
Helen Walton, the matriarch of one of the richest families in US business history who died on Thursday, made a key decision 62 years ago that likely changed the course of retailing in the United States.
In 1945, Walton refused to live in a town larger than 10,000, which meant her husband, Sam, gave up his dream of running a department store in St Louis and instead invested in a Ben Franklin variety store in tiny Newport, Arkansas. From that little store grew the Wal-Mart Stores empire that is now the world's biggest retailer.
Walton, widow of legendary Wal-Mart's founder "Mr Sam", died of natural causes after having been in poor health recently. She was 87.
The woman her husband called "pretty and smart and educated, ambitious and opinionated and strong-willed," was also responsible for giving women a greater role in running Wal-Mart.
She pressed her husband to include women on the board of directors - which he did in 1986, bringing on Arkansas lawyer and first lady of the state, Hillary Clinton.
Walton didn't win every battle, though. She also complained about Sam forcing Wal-Mart managers to work on Saturdays, a policy - still commonplace at Wal-Mart - she said damaged families because it kept parents away from their children.
Helen Walton was born on December 3, 1919, and graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in finance.
She met her future husband at a bowling alley in her hometown of Claremore, Oklahoma, and they were married on Valentine's Day in 1943.
They had four children: Rob, John, Jim and Alice; eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Rob Walton now serves as Wal-Mart's chairman. John Walton died in a plane crash in 2005.
In 1950, five years after opening the Ben Franklin store, Sam opened Walton's 5&10 in Bentonville, Arkansas, where Wal-Mart is still based. Sam opened his first Wal-Mart discount store in Rogers, Arkansas, not far from Bentonville, in 1962.
Sam's strategy was to bring low prices to underserved rural communities, and many analysts contend that his plan might not have worked so well had he targeted larger cities from the start.
Wal-Mart now faces fierce opposition as it tries to expand into major urban areas. Critics allege that Wal-Mart forces local retailers out of business, drives down employee wages, increases traffic, and hurts the environment.
Helen Walton ranked 11th on the 2006 Forbes list of the richest Americans.
Other Walton family members hold four of the top 10 spots. The family's combined fortune is above that of the world's richest person, Bill Gates. The Walton family controls around 40 per cent of Wal-Mart's stock.
After Sam's death in 1992, Helen Walton served as a vital link to her husband's legacy at a company that still turns to the words of its founder for wisdom. Company executives routinely quote from Sam's autobiography, and use clips of his speeches to motivate employees.
US Senator Clinton, who left the Wal-Mart board in 1992 as Bill Clinton campaigned for president, said it was Helen and daughter Alice who convinced Sam that it was time to break up the boardroom boys' club and invite women to join the ranks of directors.
Sam phoned Clinton and said, "They tell me I have to have a woman on the board. Do you want to be her?" Clinton recalled in a January 2004 speech to the National Retail Federation.
Sam had a chance to buy a Federated department store in St Louis in 1945, but Helen "laid down the law," as Sam put it in his 1992 autobiography.
"Sam, we've been married two years and we've moved 16 times. Now, I'll go with you any place you want so long as you don't ask me to live in a big city. Ten thousand people is enough for me," she said.
Helen Walton always drew standing ovations from big crowds when she arrived at Wal-Mart annual meetings. Her health did not permit her to attend in recent years.
- REUTERS
