Anna Nicole Smith Dead at 39

 Anna Nicole Smith, the blonde bombshell who was once a "Playboy" Playmate of the Year, is dead after collapsing in a Florida hotel room.
   She was 39-years-old.

    Her sudden death came just months after her 20-year-old son Daniel died in his mother's hospital room in the Bahamas while visiting her and his newborn sister, Dannielynn.

   Doctors concluded Daniel died from a lethal combination of drugs used to treat heroin and morphine addiction.

   Smith had been ordered to have her five-month-old baby girl undergo a paternity test as part of a lawsuit by an ex-boyfriend, Larry Birkhead.

   Smith contested her lawyer, Howard K. Stern, was the baby's father.

   Smith met elderly oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall while dancing at a Houston strip club in 1991.  The two married in 1994, when she was 26 and he 89.

   Marshall died the following year and Smith was forced into court battles with members of Marshall's family over his one-point-six-billion-dollar estate.
   A settlement has still yet to be reached.

   In 1996, Smith filed for bankruptcy as a result of an 850-thousand-dollar judgment against her in a legal matter unrelated to the Marshall estate.

   Smith was "Playboy" magazine's Playmate of the Year in 1994.

   She also played various movie roles and had her own television show, "The Anna Nicole Show" on MTV.

   Smith became a spokesperson for the diet aid Trimspa in 2003, which resulted in her losing 63 pounds.





   (Copyright 2007 by Newsroom Solutions/Regional News Service)