Nancy Walton Laurie

Nancy Walton Laurie (born May 1951^[4]) is an American heiress. She is the younger daughter of Bud Walton, the brother and business partner of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. At Bud's death, she and her sister Ann Walton Kroenke inherited a stake in Wal-Mart now worth over USD$6 billion.

Biography

She married Bill Laurie, after a courtship that occurred when they both attended the University of Memphis (then known as Memphis State University).^[5] Bill Laurie was the starting guard on the Memphis State basketball team that played in the 1973 NCAA Championship game.^[6]

She is president and founder of a New York City dance company called the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet.^[7] She is the owner of the Columbia Performing Arts Centre, a dance studio located in Columbia, Missouri.

She and her husband Bill, major contributors to the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri despite neither having attended the school, were caught up in a scandal surrounding the naming of the school's new basketball arena in 2004. They continue to try to take advantage of their wealth. They had made a $25 million naming rights gift that went to the funding of the $75 million arena, and named the facility Paige Sports Arena after their sports holding company, Paige Sports Entertainment. The company was named after their daughter, Elizabeth Paige Laurie, who also did not attend the university. Bill's brother Barry was a former Missouri basketball player, and Barry's son, Spencer Laurie, was a player on the team at the time. Nancy's nephew, Josh Kroenke, was also a former Missouri basketball player. After their daughter Paige graduated from University of Southern California in 2004, a former roommate charged that she had been paid $20,000 over four years to do Paige's homework for her. Once the charges were aired on the ABC news program 20/20, the elder Lauries relinquished naming rights of the facility, which is now known as Mizzou Arena. In June 2005, the college roommate appeared on the Ion Television show Lie Detector.^[8] In September 2005, Paige voluntarily surrendered her degree and returned her diploma to USC.

Nancy and Bill formerly owned the St. Louis Blues hockey team until 2005, when they sold the team to Dave Checketts.

In 2007 Nancy received the delivery of her 61.20 meter classically styled Feadship named Secret.

In September 2007, Nancy purchased a 17,878-square-foot (1,660.9 m²) residence in MacDonald Highlands for $17.5 million.^[9]

References