Johnelle Hunt
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Drop Out, University of Central Arkansas
United States
7
trucking, Self Made
$2,800,000,000
804
2
#8 America's Self-Made Women 2019
#804 Billionaires 2019
In 1961, Johnelle Hunt and her late husband, J.B. (d. 2006), sold their home and took out loans to start a rice hull packaging operation.Eight years later, the couple bought five trucks and seven trailers to launch J.B. Hunt Transport Services. The Lowell, Ark. business went public in 1983 and is now one of the biggest transportation companies in the nation, with $8.6 billion in sales.Hunt, who stepped down as corporate secretary in 2008, remains the firm's largest individual shareholder with a 17% stake.In 2014, Hunt donated 6 acres of land to build the Walton Arts Center's Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion, an outdoor amphitheater.
A stay-at-home mom before 1961, Hunt first took on duties such as coordinating product shipping and bookkeeping.Daughter of a poultry business owner, Hunt studied to be a teacher at University of Central Arkansas before leaving to marry J.B.
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