Anna Nicole Smith dies at 39
Voluptuous Texan Playboy model collapsed in hotel room in Florida
Smith, a billionaire's widow, faced suits on inheritance, baby's paternity
She was a Playboy model, a billionaire's widow and a reality show star. The voluptuous beauty from Texas, Anna Nicole Smith, died suddenly today after collapsing in her South Florida hotel room.
Police said Smith, 39, collapsed in her hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino & Hotel in Hollywood, Florida. According to police reports, her nurse found her and a bodyguard performed CPR before medics arrived. Efforts to save her, however, failed.
KTLA News read a statement from Playboy founder Hugh Hefner on the 5 o’clock news. “I am very saddened to learn about Anna Nicole’s passing. She was a dear friend who meant a great deal to the Playboy family and to me personally.”
Smith had weathered difficult times in recent years.
Last February, she was at the U.S. Supreme Court to hear arguments over her claim to a portion of her late husband's billion-dollar fortune. The justices unanimously decided in her favor in May.
In June 1994, a 26-year-old Smith married Texas oil baron J. Howard Marshall II, 89, a wheelchair-bound tycoon whom she met while working as a dancer.
Marshall, who was worth $1.6-billion (USD), died 14 months later. The lack of a prenuptial agreement set off a huge, 12-year legal battle between Smith and Marshall's son, E. Pierce Marshall.
At first, Smith was evicted from the Marshall ranch and her $50,000 monthly allowance was cut off. She filed for bankruptcy in 1999.
In 2000, Smith won a $474-million judgment, but that was scrapped when a Texas state court ruled that Pierce Marshall was the sole heir. In May 2006, however, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Smith could pursue her fight in federal court. Pierce Marshall, 67, died in June. The Marshall family said at the time they would continue the legal battle over the fortune.
In September 2006, Smith had a daughter, Dannielynn Hope, at a hospital in the Bahamas. Three days later her 20-year-old son, Daniel, died of an apparent mix of antidepressants and other drugs in Smith’s hospital room.
Later that month, Smith's attorney, Howard K. Stern, told CNN’s Larry King Live, that he was Dannielynn’s father and that he and Smith planned to marry. “Based on the timing of when the baby was born, there really is no doubt in either of our minds,” Stern said.
But entertainment reporter and photographer Larry Birkhead also claimed he was the girl's father, telling CNN that Smith had told him he was the father. Birkhead had waged a legal fight to determine the child's paternity, attempting to have a DNA test done.
