Webloggin » Anna Nicole Smith Dead at 39

Vickie Lynn Hogan, otherwise known famously as Anna Nicole Smith died at the age of 39 a little more than 5 months after her son dropped dead in her hospital room on September 10, 2006.

The only reference I have seen so far is from the AP.

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.

Smith certainly led a tabloid life. She just gave birth to a daughter and was in the middle of a paternity suit that is sure to get more complicated now that just about everyone central to the case has died over the last year.

That being said, I can not help but feel sad for this woman. I must confess, her dysfunctional life fascinated me to some extent. I always wondered how this screwed up woman made it as far as she did. Make no mistake, she did make it pretty far.

The bottom line is she had that tragic Hollywood life and tragic Hollywood end; oddly enough, I will miss her on some level.

Others: Wizbang, Hot Air,Bookworm Room