Johnelle Hunt

Johnelle Terria Hunt is an American billionaire, the widow of Johnnie Bryan Hunt, and co-founder of J.B. Hunt Transport Services, the company they started in 1961.

• 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, Arkansas. 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 six acres of land to build the Walton Arts Center’s Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion, an outdoor amphitheater.