Friday, February 09, 2007

In Passing ... Anna Nicole Smith (1967-2007)

Former Playboy Playmate and Guess girl Anna Nicole Smith died today at the age of 39. According to CNN.com, Anna was found "unconscious and unresponsive" in her hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino & Hotel in Hollywood, Florida yesterday.

Born Vickie Lynn Hogan in Mexia, a small town in Texas on 28th of November 1967, she first appeared in Playboy on March 1992 issue and was made the Playmate of the Month in May. In 1993, she was crowned as the Playmate of the Year 1993. It was Paul Marciano, CEO of Guess Jeans who changed her name from Vickie to Anna Nicole Smith for he did not like the name Vickie Smith.

At the age of 16, Anna married her high school boyfriend Bill Smith but their premature marriage ended in 1987. From the first marriage, she bore a son named Daniel who died last year of drug abuse at the age of 20. In 1994, she met her late husband J. Howard Marshall II, a wheelchair-bound oil tycoon from Texas while she worked as a dancer. Smith was 26 then and Marshall was 89 years old that time.

With fortune amassed of $1.6 billion, the couple married at Houston's White Dove Wedding Chapel. 14 months later, her husband died and leads to a 12-year legal battle over her the oil tycoon's fortune between her and her stepson E. Pierce Marshall, who died in June 2000 at the age of 67, after she won her $474 million judgment.

Last year, Anna was appointed as the spokesperson for TrimSpa after her triumphant weight lost but ended up included in a lawsuit against the weight-lost product manufacturer for misleading and false information. However, her reincarnation as legendary Hollywood icon Bo Derek for the TrimSpa ad campaigns proved to be a hit just like her Guess stint. By the time of her death, Anna is survived by her infant daughter Daniel Lynn Hope, whom she conceived September last year.

*Photo courtesy of Guess? Jeans.

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