FILE / BAHAMAS: Anna Nicole Smith to be buried in the Bahamas next to her 20-year-old son

Record ID: 409023

  • Title: FILE / BAHAMAS: Anna Nicole Smith to be buried in the Bahamas next to her 20-year-old son
  • Date: 7th March 2007
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (FILE) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) (*** FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY ***) ANNA NICOLE SMITH ON THE RED CARPET AT VH1'S BIG IN '06
  • Embargoed: 22nd March 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Entertainment,People
  • Reuters ID: LVAAQW99IS8J6GC7K7WOR8PRICA3
  • Story Text: The body of former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith was moved from a Florida morgue on Friday (March 2) for a final journey to the Bahamas for burial.
    Smith's body was taken in a long motorcade to a Florida airport, carloads of paparazzi in tow and television news helicopters buzzing overhead as the procession was shown live on television.
    The Fourth District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach cleared the way for the funeral when it upheld on Wednesday (February 28) a lower court ruling that gave custody of the body to a court-appointed guardian for Smith's 5-month-old daughter Dannielynn.
    The decision capped three weeks of legal wrangling over the corpse of the former topless dancer and billionaire's widow, whose sudden death at age 39 on Feb. 8 at a Florida casino hotel triggered a media frenzy.
    Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, had wanted to bury her daughter in their native Texas, even though the two had been estranged for a decade.
    But Howard K. Stern, Smith's long-time companion, is listed as Dannielynn's father on the birth certificate. He insisted that Smith be buried in Nassau's Lakeview Cemetery, alongside the unmarked grave where her 20-year-old son Daniel is buried.
    The burial was due to take place around midday on Friday, after a private church service in Nassau.
    Daniel Smith died of suspected drug-related causes at Doctors' Hospital in Nassau in September, just days after Smith gave birth to Dannielynn.
    It is still not clear what caused the death of his mother, but her estate could ultimately be worth millions if it wins a legal battle over the estate of her late husband, billionaire oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall.
    Smith was born Vickie Lynn Hogan and raised in the small Texas town of Mexia, 80 miles (130 km) south of Dallas. She grew up emulating screen legend Marilyn Monroe.
    She met elderly oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall while dancing at a Houston strip club and married him in 1994, when she was 26 and he was 89.
    Marshall died the following year and Smith spent much of the following decade battling members of his family over his estate. In May 2006 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Smith could pursue her case in federal court.
    Smith, who modelled Guess jeans, was named Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Year in 1993 and had film roles the following year in "The Hudsucker Proxy" and "Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult."
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