(But even Anna didn't deserve all this misery!)
Posted on 02/08/2007 1:17:38 PM PST by NormsRevenge
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - Anna Nicole Smith, the former Playboy playmate whose bizarre life careened from marrying an octogenarian billionaire to the untimely death of her son, died Thursday after collapsing at a South Florida hotel, one of her lawyers said.
Smith, 39, collapsed and was unresponsive while staying at the Seminole Hard Rock Cafe Hotel and Casino, said the attorney, Ron Rale. She was rushed to a hospital.
"She checked in Monday at 8 p.m. as a guest. She was due to check out tomorrow," said Danielle Giordaano, a spokeswoman for the hotel.
Smith had been a tabloid staple even before she became Playboy's playmate of the year in 1993. Readers were fascinated by her bombshell good looks, her marriage to an elderly billionaire and subsequent court fight over his estate, her weight fluctuations, and last year, the sudden death of her 20-year-old son, Daniel Smith.
A former topless dancer, she made her name squeezing into Guess jeans. She resembled the late actress Marilyn Monroe, a similarity played up in her Guess magazine ads, billboards and department store displays.
In 1994, she married 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, the head of oil-based Koch Industries, which is part of a family fortune worth at least $400 million.
He died in 1995, setting off a feud with her former stepson, E. Pierce Marshall, over whether she had a right to his estate.
A federal court in California awarded Smith $474 million in a complicated legal twist that began after she declared bankruptcy. That was later overturned.
But in May, the U.S. Supreme Court revived her case, ruling that she deserved another day in court in her battle with her former stepson.
The justices said only that federal courts in California could deal with her case despite a Texas state court ruling that Marshall was the sole heir to the estate.
Then, the stepson died June 20 at age 67. But the family said the court fight would continue.
Daniel Smith died Sept. 10 in his mother's hospital room in the Bahamas, just days after she gave birth to a daughter.
An American medical examiner hired by the family, Cyril Wecht, said he had methadone and two antidepressants in his system when he died. Low levels of the three drugs interacted to cause an accidental death, Wecht said.
Meanwhile, the paternity of her now 5-month-old daughter remained a matter of dispute.
She was born Vickie Lynn Hogan on Nov. 28, 1967, in Houston, one of six children of Donald Eugene and Virgie Hart Hogan.
She married Bill Smith in 1985, giving birth to Daniel before divorcing two years later.
Sad it seems she was in turmoil her whole life
Rip
I smell suicide
Whoa, On Fox they've just been saying she was found unresponsive, not that she has died.
Even when she was behaving crazily, there was always something very pitiable about her. Sad life-may she rest in peace.
No one can know what pressures she was feeling or has experienced in her lifetime, especially recently.
Strange situation. Somewhat Monroe-esque in ways.
Most likely OD.
Well. They come in 3's. Who will be the other 2 large breasted, drug induced, ego maniacs?
Keep it clean, folks. I have to step out for a bit.
"Meanwhile, the paternity of her now 5-month-old daughter remained a matter of dispute."
Isn't this girl now rich as all get out?
(But even Anna didn't deserve all this misery!)
Would Clinton and Pelosi qualify?
Witnesses say that Ms. Smith was reportedly babbling and muttering incoherently, but no one saw anything out of the ordinary until she collapsed.
Two mysterious deaths in the same family...a family that was likely to become very,*very* rich equals murder investigation IMO.
RIP Anna Nicole. I feel so bad for her baby.
Yeah. I feel pity for that person, glad that I am not her. Just another example of fame and fortune not being the key to happiness.
J. Howard was a shareholder in Koch Industries, not the owner.
What?
let's see - the son dies, she dies, the new baby is the heir to all the cash.
who is the father of that baby?
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