BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- Sam Walton may be worth a cool $2.8 billion but by all accounts, he is just one of the boys.
Walton, 67, who lives and works in the Ozark mountains of northwest Arkansas, is the richest man in America, according to Forbes magazine's list of the nation's 400 wealthiest -- people whose net worth tops $150 million.
Walton's chain of Wal-Mart discount stores are in 19 states in the South and Southwest. From the time he opened his first store in 1962 in Arkansas through the opening of his 748th store this year, Walton has seen sales rise to a projected $6.2 billion this year.
Walton and his family own 54 million shares of the concern's stock.
Walton began his career as a J.C. Penny Co. Inc. management trainee in 1940. After operating a group of Ben Franklin stores with his brother, James, Walton opened the first Wal-Mart in Rogers, Ark., on July 2, 1962.
Walton was born (about 1918) in Kingfisher, Okla. He moved to Arkansas in 1945.
He and wife have four children, all grown, three sons and one daughter.
Wal-Mart is headquartered in Bentonville, a town of 8,700 that exemplifies the small-town life that Walton is said to enjoy. He likes to hunt birds, drives a pickup truck and visits with neighbors with his early morning donut in the local coffee shop.
Walton, as a matter of practice, refuses requests for interviews.
'I don't hear anything bad about the man,' said Wayne Melton, a supply room worker. 'I think he is a very honorable man. I think he renders a service to the community at a reasonable price.'
After the Forbes list was published last week, Walton's wealth was the subject of the lead editorial page cartoon in the Arkansas Gazette in Little Rock.
It showed two of the state's richest men, brothers Witt and Jack Stephens, dressed as hobos, each with a 'mere' $430 million travel bag and sitting under an overpass. A limousine was passing overhead with Walton's $2.8 billion written on it.
'Look at it this way, Jack -- he's not really happy,' the cartoon had Witt saying.
To the contrary, Walton appears to be a happy man and he seems to make others happy.
'Sam is a pretty common man,' Bentonville Mayor Richard W. Hoback said. 'He's been very generous with the city. He loves to bird hunt. I don't believe he ever misses a Sunday in church.'
Walton gets an early start. Many times he can been seen around 6 a.m. in the local coffee shop having a doughnut and visiting before going to work.
'He doesn't think he's better than anybody else,' Hoback said. 'He's one of the truly great people. You go into a room where Sam is, you visit with him a little and you simply feel better.'
He dresses 'very casual,' Hoback said, but 'when the occasion arises, he looks like million dollars in a suit. He's just one of these people that when the occasion arises, he fits the occasion.'
Walton lives in town in a house rebuilt from a fire started by lightning about six years ago.
'It's a nice home but it certainly doesn't reflect his income,' Hoback said. 'It's nothing at all you would picture a man of his wealth living in.'
Dave Harrington, director of the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission, said Walton's success is a positive effect for the state.
'We do an awful lot of trying to promote Arkansas' image and having Mr. Walton being the richest man in the nation is nothing but positive and favorable,' Harrington said.
